Crystal Version
by NeoRogueShadows
Summary: Think about Pokemon for a second. They are dangerous creatures, and some of them can unmake cities on a whim! Yet humanity continues in this world. What must it be like for humans? What dangers await anyone trying to live in this world? Please review!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes:  
**There's always a little bit of trepidition before posting a story for the first time on a new forum.  
This is a Pokemon Fanfiction, but it's not set in the universe of the TV show...or really that of the game, despite being based on Crystal Version. No, this story is based off of a universe that me and two friends created when we started making jokes about Bill being a Nazi. Actually, one of those friends - DagaYemar - already has a fanfiction of that posted; it's in my favorites. I'd recommend reading it first, actually, as it kind of creates the themes and settings for this story.  
Daga's, though, is a comedy. Me, I'm not very good at comedy, so this is more of a drama. It is also LONG...just a warning.  
Anyway, I've talked enough. We now join out hero...

* * *

**Chapter One: Crystal Tsubaki**

_BREET. BREET. BREET. BREET._ The alarm was ringing incessantly, loud and penetrating straight into Crystal Tsubaki's skull. The young girl slammed her hand down onto the Houndour clock's snooze button for something like the third time this morning, rolling over onto her chest and sinking her face into her pillow, trying to go back to sleep.

_Stupid alarm. It's Sunday. Why the heck was it ringing-_

Realization struck like a bolt of lightning from a Raichu.

_Crap._

* * *

Mrs. Tsubaki made a slight face as she heard scrambling upstairs. She looked up at the ceiling, pausing from making breakfast for the two of them and wondering what her daughter was doing up there to make such a racket.

The girl stumbled down the stairs a few minutes later, just as her mother finished buttering the toast and pouring out the cereal.

"Good morning!" She said cheerily to her daughter. "Breakfast is-"

"_Thanksmomdon'thavetimebebacklater!_" Crystal rushed, as she blew straight by the table and grabbed one of the toast slices, running towards the doors and trying to get her shoes on while also eating. That ended poorly, with her falling back onto her rear.

"Crystal!" Mrs. Tsubaki exclaimed, moving over to her and putting her hands on her hips. "What has you in a rush?"

Her daughter had stuffed most of the toast in her mouth, and took a second to swallow before responding, while still tying her shoe. "Professor Elm!" She said.

Her mother paused, waiting. "And…?" She asked.

Crystal sighed. "Professor Elm wanted me to help him out with something!" She continued. "His lab's under-staffed, and ever since Gold and Silver left he's been counting on me to pick up the slack!"

"So?" Mrs. Tsubaki asked.

"So," Crystal said, as she finished tying her shoes, "today he wanted me to go to one of his friend's houses, to pick up something that they found. And that friend _lives near Cherrygrove City!_"

Mrs. Tsubaki paused, taking this information in. "Oh no," she said, shaking her head. "No, no, no. Crystal, it's _dangerous_ to leave the safety of-"

She was speaking to empty air; her daughter had already shot out the door, running full-speed for Elm labs.

Mrs. Tsubaki dashed to her own shoes, pulling them on. She was going to have _words_ with Elm…

* * *

Crystal was fairly certain that she lived in the most exciting time to be alive. Kanto had been recently discovered by the natives of Johto; their Victory Army was forever pushing back the forces of nature and giving more space for the human race; and _she was about to leave New Bark Town!_ That last may have had little to do with the state of the world, but it had _her_ excited, anyway.

She supposed her hometown wasn't a bad place to grow up, if one didn't mind the monotony. New Bark Town was located in practically the safest place in the world. The pokémon were weak here, easily kept in check by the numerous trainers and guards for Professor Elm's lab. But it was _dull_. Crystal had been a legal adult for a year now - _thank you, out-of-date laws,_ she thought - but opportunities to leave New Bark Town were rare, to say the least. The place was locked down tight; after all, Professor Elm was a leading force in Johto's scientific research.

The young girl paused outside of Elm's lab, catching her breath before walking in. There were guards, but they recognized her - knew her by first name, for that matter, after how often she'd been here. Jobs weren't exactly common on the fringe of civilization, and Crystal considered herself lucky to help Professor Elm in his lab, rather than being a simple substance farmer, ten-pallet-store clerk, or something else.

The young girl walked through the maze of corridors and rooms that made up the lab. Professor Elm had nothing to compare to the facility run in Pallet town, in distant Kanto, but it was still sizeable - if understaffed. There were dozens of pokémon in pens and dozens more in pokéballs, waiting feeding or experimentation.

And then there was one pen, which sat empty. Crystal stopped near it like she always did in her way in. It was set into the floor, about fifteen feet deep, with a railing surrounding it. Up until yesterday, a Nidorino and a Nidorina had sat within it. Crystal had helped to remove the two, still basically feral, brought in by sheer power and having never been contained in a pokéball. All they had done was fight to the point of exhaustion for the better part of two or three months, until the last three days or so when the cost of feeding them had simply outpaced the value of the experiment.

As usual, in the case of this experiment, which Elm attempted every year.

Crystal was about to begin moving towards Professor Elm's lab again, but stopped almost as soon as she started: the Professor was already walking in her direction. He was fairly tall and relatively young, but was already balding. He was wearing his usual white coat, and had a clipboard in hand as he walked, looking down at it and making notes.

"Professor!" Crystal said as he walked, moving up to the man. "Sorry I'm late!"

Elm looked up from his notes, brow furrowed. "Late?" He asked.

Crystal nodded. "For the errand?" She asked, hands behind her back. "To Cherrygrove?"

Elm thought a moment, tapping his pen to his chin. "The one for tomorrow?" He asked, flipping through the clipboard and turning it around to a calendar. He had a day circled - a Monday. Tomorrow, in fact.

Crystal stared for a moment, then let out a moan and grabbed the rail to the pen, banging her head against it. "Crap…I can't believe I ran all the way here on my day off…"

Elm smiled a little. "You're around me too much," he said, smiling a little and leaning on the railing himself. "You can forget time pretty easily when working with pokémon."

"Except the ones in here," Crystal said, pointing at the empty pen. "I practically wanted to jump in there and shout at them to start breeding."

Elm laughed. "If pokémon breed in a way we could understand. If the Nido-line can even breed with each other." The professor sighed, turning around. "Catching wild pokémon is such a hazard. If we could tame them, domesticate them on a large scale…"

Crystal smiled. Professor Elm had been working on this problem for years - even before the Johto had first contacted the Kanto region, about five years ago. Pokémon bred with each other, it was known, but they'd never done it in captivity. For that matter, pokémon eggs or nests had never been found anywhere in the known world. Of course, the world was vast, and the human population was not.

Crystal shook her head. "Well, I guess I'll go home…" She said, turning around to leave - or she was, until she saw a dark figure stalking towards her and Professor Elm, fire in her eyes. Several of the lab guards were behind her, escorting her and looking none too pleased at her presence but not nearly brave enough to stop her.

"Uh…" Crystal moaned. "Mom?"

* * *

Crystal sat outside of Elm's office, fidgeting. She didn't understand a lot of the loud words that her mother was shouting at Professor Elm behind the closed doors, but she certainly understood their intent.

The young girl let out a long sigh, slumping down in the chair. She was an adult, darn it! Legally, anyway, thanks to the technology of Johto having a history of outstripping the lawmaker's abilities to keep pace with changing lifestyles. People lead longer, safer lives these days than they ever had before, but no change had yet been made to the laws that assumed that people were going to die before the age of forty.

Plus, mothers would always be mothers. Crystal stood, sighing again and walking over to the door to Elm's personal lab, deciding that as long as she was here, she might as well get some kind of work done. Set aside from all the others, it was mostly for experiments Elm wanted to run by himself on his own time. A few pokéballs sat on a retainer, the red lights on their front indicating them to contain a pokémon within, still waiting sorting and processing.

Crystal picked one up, pressing a button on its side and reading the display that ran along the circumference of the pokéball. Contained within was an Eevee, just caught a few days ago. A rare find, especially in this area.

"Huh," Crystal said, rifling through the pokéballs and finding another one, this one containing a more familiar pokémon. She activated that one first, and about four feet from her, a shimmering energy field appeared, taking shape and becoming a small, human-shaped pokémon, with long arms and long legs on a small torso, a large head with three spines, and gray skin with markings around its waist and feet that almost seemed to suggest shorts and shoes.

The pokémon looked around, raising both hands and ready to battle. Crystal shook head. "Hopefully not," she said aloud, leaning forward. Mostly, her job at Elm Labs was limited to cleaning and stocking duties, but she was also the only handler left since Gold and Silver left. Whenever she was in a situation where she could potentially get injured, Professor Elm let her use this pokémon, a Tyrogue, as protection. "Just be ready to help me, 'kay?"

The Tyrogue didn't really understand Crystal, but he hopped up onto the counter of Elm's lab and crossed its arms, waiting and trained well enough to not attack other pokémon on sight. Crystal turned away from him, and let out a breath. "Okay," she said, holding the Eevee's ball forward. "Let's get a look at you…"

Red light streamed forward as the ball opened halfway, taking a different shape than the Tyrogue had as a small, Vulpix-like animal, mostly brown-furred but with a mane of white and two long ears, a single bushy tail, and large, black eyes.

It looked like Hell. Whoever had caught this Eevee hadn't taken the time to get it healed up. It fell over almost immediately, and Crystal put a hand to her mouth when she saw the burn marks along its flank, exposing charred skin beneath, and how was holding up one foreleg as though afraid to stretch it out - sprained at best, broken at worst. It was panting heavily.

"Oh…" she moaned, moving over to the Eevee, Tyrogue following by walking on the counter top. The Eevee glared at her weakly, would probably have bitten her had it the strength. Crystal moved cautiously nevertheless - pokémon were wild, dangerous animals, and often more intelligent then they appeared. Still, if this Eevee was putting on some kind of ruse, laying some kind of trap, Crystal couldn't see through it.

The young girl rifled through Elm's lab, first grabbing a few burn heals a small spray-potion, and a splint. She used the burn heal first, which the Eevee flinched away from until it realized that whatever Crystal was doing, she was helping. Tyrogue watched with disinterest.

"Alright," Crystal said, reaching out and stroking the Eevee's fur atop its head. The Eevee still stared at her, but its tail swished slightly and it nudged Crystal's hand with its nose - a sign of trust. Crystal was about to ruin that trust, of course, but for the Eevee's own good.

"Okay," Crystal continued, moving her hand down to the Eevee's leg, the broken one, talking more for her own benefit then the pokémon's. "This part's gonna suck, but it needs to be done, okay? So just bear with me…bear…with…"

Crystal straightened out the pokémon's bent leg. It howled in pain and bit Crystal's hand - not something she wasn't expecting, though. Tyrogue leapt from the counter onto the floor, but Crystal shook her head. "_No!_" She said sternly to him as he looked about ready to kick the Eevee. He held back, but clearly didn't look pleased by this fact.

Crystal bit her lip and ignored the pain. The Eevee was far too weak to actually do any real damage to Crystal, and she was in a lab that specialized in dealing with feral or nearly-feral pokémon - she wasn't worried about diseases as she held the Eevee's leg fast and bound it up in the splint, receiving a few more bites for the effort. Pokémon healed incredibly fast; the bones Eevee's leg would be fine in only a few days, but would have healed in all the wrong shape had she not set them in a splint.

Crystal let out a sigh as she finally let go of the Eevee's leg, finishing her ministrations by spraying the Eevee's burn and fur with the spray-on potion, which would accelerate the healing several times beyond even normal pokémon rates. But now the Eevee quite clearly hated her, the strange being that had inflicted incredible pain onto its broken leg. It tried to bite off the splint, but that only hurt more, and besides, Crystal used one of the flexible steel ones that couldn't be bitten off, at least not by such a small and weakened pokémon.

The young girl backed away from the Eevee, which was now standing, its fur standing on end in anger, but also still wincing in pain. Tyrogue, meanwhile, had resumed its disinterested watching of the Eevee, waiting for it to do something stupid when Crystal wasn't looking so he could start hitting it.

Crystal sighed, rubbing the back of her head. With the addition of the splint, the Eevee couldn't go into a pokéball for awhile, until the splint was removed. Still, it needed to be done. Inside of the pokéball, the Eevee was nominally unaware of time passing at all, but leaving it in such a state…

The Eevee hissed at her, like a Meowth or Persian might, its ears flat against its skull and tail straight out behind it, swishing menacingly. It probably didn't realize the only reason it could stand at all was because of the potion Crystal had sprayed it with.

The young girl shook her head, walking over to a cabinet and retrieving some human-intended medical supplies for her hand. The Eevee's bites had only barely broken her skin; she simply applied some rubbing alcohol and a few bandages. When she turned around, the Eevee was still glaring at her, but had stopped hissing. It was limping away from the Tyrogue, however, looking terrified and angry at the same time.

"Look," Crystal said, moving forward and kneeling before the Eevee. "I _could_ have let your leg heal all wrong. Then you'd have probably had to been put down."

The Eevee couldn't understand a word of Crystal's, of course, but Crystal clearly didn't _mean_ it any harm, at the moment. It settled down, glaring at her and watching the Tyrogue. Crystal thought a moment, then grabbed Tyrogue's pokéball and returned him to it, getting a look of disappointment for the effort. The Eevee's fur stood on end at the sight and it hissed at the spot where Tyrogue disappeared, but settled down when Crystal didn't grab another pokéball for itself.

"How long do you think my mom is going to shout at Professor Elm?" Crystal asked, getting down onto her stomach on the floor, watching the Eevee in what she hoped look like a relaxed, non-threatening way and speaking in equally non-threatening tones. "I mean, this should be easy, right? _No, my daughter can't go 'cause I'm afraid my own shadow has a Ghastly hiding in it and somehow that applies to her as well_. Right?"

The Eevee ventured no opinion on the matter.

"Whatever Professor Elm's friend found must have been pretty big, though," Crystal said, tapping her fingers on the floor. "I mean, not _big_, big. I couldn't carry something _big_. But important. Though, if it was so important, why not send one of his aides?"

The Eevee theorized that perhaps they were all busy. Or Crystal decided that it sitting down on its own stomach, a move mimicking Crystal's own, was what that meant.

"You're not much of a conversationalist." Crystal said with a smile, reaching out one hand slowly, the one the Eevee had bitten. It shied away, but Crystal remained still once her hand was outstretched. After a few minutes, the Eevee leaned forward, sniffing at Crystal's fingers.

"You're cute, though," Crystal decided, retracting her arm, again very slowly. The Eevee simply stared at her. "Boy or girl?"

The Eevee of course didn't answer, so Crystal tried to figure it out based on its shape. Slender, with somewhat thicker ears than she expected, a smaller mane but a bushier tail. She could have just lifted the Eevee up, but she was fairly sure how the pokémon would react to that and wasn't eager to have to put on another bandage.

Crystal pointed to the Eevee. "You're a girl." She decided. The Eevee, of course, didn't put forward any objections. "So you'll be…Kitsu."

The Eevee snorted, as though she knew how unoriginal the name was.

"Okay, so it's just an old word for Vulpixes or Eevees," Crystal said, shrugging. "I could be _real_ unoriginal and not name you at _all_ if you prefer."

The Eevee stood, and stretched, making its way forward slowly and settling down closer to Crystal, their noses practically touching.

"Okay, so you _like_ the name-" Crystal began, but then Kitsu bit her nose.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes  
**Sorry for the long delay between getting the next dang chapter up. I don't normally have internet access, so updates may occasionally be infrequent. I'll try to make sure to make up for any delays whenever they occur.  
Farla brought up a few points in her...review. I'm just going to touch on two of them here; Farla, I'm PM'ing you a full responce which will hopefully address all your points.  
1) Yeah...dialogue and the proper organization thereof is my Achilles Heal. Also, as of writing this I currently have just about eight chapters done, so that's eight chapters of disorganized dialogue. At an average of six pages per chapter, that is a LOT of tedium to try and correct it all. So, I'm going to post chapters 1-8 as is. From chapter 9 onwards, I'll be using correct dialogue organization. It doesn't help that NONE of my Creative Writing or English teachers ever called me out on it.  
2) On the subject of pokemon names always being initially capitalized. I have the official Nintendo Guide to Pokemon Crystal Version right next to me as I type. Every instance of a pokemon name in there, be it refering to a single pokemon or a group of them, has the initial letter of the pokemon's name capitalized. So, Ash's pokemon is named **P**ikachu, but a bunch of generic pokemon of that species are also **P**ikachu, and not **p**ikachu. I don't pretend to understand that standard, I'm just following it. I suspect the fact that all pokemon names are copyrighted may enter into it at some point.

Anyway.

* * *

**Chapter Two: Kitsu**

Crystal rubbed her nose. Kitsu hadn't bitten it hard enough to make her bleed, but it had _hurt_. She glared daggers at the small pokémon now in her house, though the daggers were blunt because _there was a pokémon in her house, _which had never happened before.

Well, except when they had that Rattata infestation, but that had been taken care of by a trainer with a Gloom.

After her mother had dragged her home, not-so-subtly implying that Crystal was never going to leave the house again until she was eighty and was certainly _not_ going to trek across the wilderness for days in order to get to Cherrygrove City, Crystal had simply moped in her room. However, a few hours later, Professor Elm had shown up at the house, a cage in hand containing a very irate Eevee. He wasn't unhappy with what Crystal had done - far from it, in fact - but now the Eevee seemed to have imprinted on the young girl. She certainly calmed down a lot when it saw her, as though certain she could handle Crystal, having already proven to herself that she could bite the human's nose if need be.

Crystal's mother had _not_ been pleased with her, on the other hand. Mrs. Tsubaki hadn't grown up in the old days, when humans had few defenses against pokémon - that was centuries ago - but she probably would have fit right into those days of fear and worry. Fortunately, her mother's sense of responsibility outstripped her fear of pokémon. Crystal had started tending to it, so she had to finish it.

"Does it _have_ to be down here?" Mrs. Tsubaki asked. She was behind the counter of their kitchenette, cutting up food for their lunch.

Crystal shrugged, crossing her arms and looking down at Kitsu. "Do you have to be down here?" She asked her. The Eevee responded by deftly hopping up onto their living room couch. She winced a little, her broken leg apparently hurting for that stunt, but didn't squeal in pain, either because she was already getting better or else through a deliberate act of will. The Eevee settled down on the couch, watching the two humans.

Crystal looked to her mother. "Kitsu says yes. And she's a _she_, mom, not an _it_." Crystal had been sure to double-check that fact with Professor Elm, and was pleased to be told that she had guessed right.

"She's a pokémon," Mrs. Tsubaki commented, as her knife worked through tomatoes. "Honestly, I don't understand how anyone could want to keep one…much less how someone might want to _collect_ them…"

Crystal shuddered a little at that. New Bark Town, and most of the surrounding area, had weak, docile pokémon, for the most part - Rattatas, Sentrets, Pidgeys, and the occasional Geodude from the nearby mountains. For whatever reason, the pokémon here simply never became very strong.

But further inland, or out to sea, there were real monsters - the Onix serpents, the Tyranitar nightmares, the dreaded Houndooms, and most fearsome of all, the Gyrados dragons, monsters that could unmake entire cities on a whim. Human civilization existed in a very narrow band along the coastline, in either large, well-defended cities like Goldenrod or Olivine, or else in small, isolated villages like New Bark Town or Azalea Town in areas populated by weak, easy-to-manage pokémon. The thought of actually _seeking out_ the most monstrous pokémon, trying to catch them, seemed like suicide to Crystal. For many trainers who overestimated their own abilities, it was.

"But this isn't a Gyrados," Crystal said, getting down onto her knees in front of the couch and putting her head on its cushion, staring into Kitsu's eyes. "She's just an Eevee."

Kitsu yawned, then began licking at her burn. Fur was already growing back across the exposed skin.

"See?" Crystal asked, looking at her mother.

Mrs. Tsubaki had slowed down cutting the tomatoes, watching the Eevee as closely as she had been watching her a few moments earlier. "_Please_ don't get that close to it," She begged. "Look what it did to your hand!"

Crystal looked at her bandages. "Mom, she barely broke skin, and it was only 'cause I was setting the bones in her leg. Besides, Tyrogue was there to stop her if she tried anything."

She held out her bandaged hand to Kitsu, who stopped licking her fur and leaned forward to sniff Crystal's hand. Much to Crystal's own surprise, she licked the bandages a few times before returning to tending her own burn.

Crystal giggled a little. "See? She even apologized," She said, pulling her hand away and going over to the kitchenette, retrieving one of the cans of food that Professor Elm had brought for Kitsu and opening it. The pokémon, still only newly caught, didn't yet associate the sound of a can opening with food - but after a few moments, she could smell something that seemed to be delicious, her ears perking up and tail raised high at the smell. Crystal presented the Eevee with the food a few minutes later, as she and her mother sat down at the table. Kitsu sniffed the food experimentally, nibbled for a few moments, then dove straight in, making contented cooing noises every few moments.

"You're not keeping it," Mrs. Tsubaki said after a few minutes of eating their lunch - simple sandwiches, rice, and lemonade - in silence.

Crystal looked to her mother. "But…!" She began. She suddenly realized that she'd simply _assumed_ that she was keeping Kitsu, that the Eevee was now _hers_, despite no one - not even Professor Elm - even implying that. Crystal wondered for a moment whom had imprinted on whom.

Her mother made a cutting motion with her hand. "No. I realize you're an adult, but this is still _my_ house. I'm not having a pokémon in it."

Crystal crossed her arms. "That's not fair. I help out around here and work my butt off over at Elm Labs. I never ask for anything!"

"Well, then the last thing we want to do is ruin that trend," Mrs. Tsubaki said, pointing with her chopsticks at Crystal. "Though I seem to remember last year, you begging me to get you that computer in your room…"

Crystal's mouth hung open. "I just needed you to _order_ it, 'cause you have to be seventeen to make inter-city orders! I _paid_ for it!" She reminded her mother. In fact, that had been the whole reason she had gone to work for Elm labs: to make money for the computer, something she wasn't going to accomplish by running the tiny mart in New Bark Town that didn't even sell pokéballs, like her mother.

"Yes, well," Her mother said, crossing her arms. "My house, my rules."

Crystal felt something against her leg, and looked down. Kitsu was rubbing against her, cooing softly in appreciation for the food that she had finished. Her eyes were closed, ears high and tail swishing around eagerly.

Crystal felt something tug in her heart. "Mom…" She said, reaching down to Kitsu and picking the pokémon up, setting her on her lap. Much to her surprise, Kitsu didn't object at all, rubbing her head against her stomach now. "Come on, look at her…"

The Eevee stopped, looking down the table at Mrs. Tsubaki, before letting out a slight squeal, the _eev-eev_ sound that gave the pokémon its name, eyes closed again. She spun around on Crystal's lap a few times before sitting down, clearly intent on falling asleep after what must have been a long, tiring, and often frightening and painful day for her.

"No," Mrs. Tsubaki said, unmoved. "Crystal, I'm not saying that you can't work at Elm Labs, or that you can't see that Eevee whenever you work there, or even just to visit it. But it is _not_ living with you."

Her mother was wrong, Crystal knew. Even if she had been right before, Kitsu curling up on her lap simply made it painfully obvious to the young girl: This was _her_ Eevee, and Kitsu clearly thought of Crystal as _her_ human. Wherever one went, from now on, so would the other. She just knew it.

But her mother was right about this being her house, and her making the rules as a result. She stroked the Eevee on her lap, biting her lip as she did. How could she make this a reality? How could she stay with Kitsu?

* * *

"I'm sorry about yesterday," Crystal said to Professor Elm, as she distracted Kitsu with a stuffed Tentacruel doll, which she waved in front of the Eevee while Elm used various machines to analyze her. Crystal's work shift, today consisting of just cleaning up a few pens and feeding some pokémon, was done. Kitsu had tagged long, not getting far from Crystal in this strange place full of strange smells. "My mom had bad experience with pokémon when she was young."

"Most people do, when you live out here," Elm noted, pulling away from Kitsu. They were in his private lab, and though Elm had Tyrogue's pokéball at the ready, just in case Kitsu reacted poorly to anything he was doing, the Vulpix-like pokémon was behaving admirably well. "I was chased halfway to Blackthorn by a flock of Pidgey-line pokémon when I was eight."

Crystal paused a moment, thinking - a tactical error, Kitsu supposed, for she used Crystal's pause to begin batting at the Tentacruel doll with her good leg. "Pidgey-lines don't flock," She commented.

"I know. Still haven't figured out why so many were in one place," Elm said. "In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have thrown that rock at the one Pidgeot and instead been gathering data. But then again, I wasn't a scientist then, I was an eight-year-old."

Crystal nodded. "I was bitten by an Ekans when I was ten," She said. "It didn't use its fangs, just its normal teeth, but I didn't realize that. I thought I was dying. And there was that Rattata infestation in my house when I was four…"

Elm laughed a little. "What happened to your mother?" He asked.

Crystal leaned forward, touching her nose to Kitsu's own. The Eevee clamped her mouth on Crystal's nose - not actually biting, just grabbing, something that had become a sign of affection between the two. After a second, she pulled away, and made her _eev-eev_ sound, before biting the Tentacruel doll and tugging. Crystal let her have it.

"She got lost in the Ilex Forest at night," Crystal said, rubbing her nose. "Lived in Azalea Town at the time. She was paralyzed by Venomoth dust when she startled it, then nearly eaten by a Houndour-"

"Yikes," Elm said, eyes wide.

"_But_," Crystal continued, "The Houndour was killed by an Ursaring that had somehow ended up in Ilex Forest. The Ursaring ate the Houndour in front of my mom."

Elm was quiet for a moment, taking this in. "Huh," He said.

"Yeah," Crystal said. "The paralysis wore off around then, so she bolted and happened to run in a direction that took her back to Azalea. Her parents moved to New Bark town, and she's lived here ever since."

"Why not move to Goldenrod or Olivine?" Elm asked. The cities were well-defended against pokémon, and theoretically one could live their entire life in one of those two without ever seeing a wild creature.

Crystal shrugged. "I think she'd hate city life, or she thinks she'd hate it." She reached forward, grabbing two of the Tentacruel doll's tentacles and tugging. Kitsu tugged back, and the two engaged in a lighthearted tug-of-war for the doll for the next few minutes as Elm examined Kitsu's leg.

"Bones are mending nicely," He commented. "We'll probably be able to take the cast off later today."

Crystal let out a whistle. "Pokémon heal _fast_," She said, looking at one arm. If _she_ had broken an arm as badly as Kitsu had broken her leg - or had it broken, Crystal supposed - then she'd be in a cast for weeks or even months.

"Eevees heal even faster than some other pokémon," Elm commented, moving away and to a counter. "I imagine it has something to do with their unique genetic structure. We've got three distinct evolutions for them in the pokédex we imported from Kanto."

"Flareon, Jolteon, and Vaporeon," Crystal said. "Plus Espeon and Umbreon from our own pokédex. I'm surprised the Kanto didn't have those two."

Elm paused a moment, and turned around, crossing his arms. "The Kanto are very…utilitarian…with their pokémon, from what we've learned. Pokémon in the Johto region are much less aggressive, at least when compared to Kanto. Hence why they have an active army that's been expanding Kanto for years against the inland pokémon, whereas we've simply moved in where we see opportunity and defended our holdings."

Crystal stopped pulling at the Tentacruel doll, sitting down in a chair next to the table that Kitsu was on and crossing her arms. The Eevee pulled the Tentacruel close and began kicking at it with her back legs. "So the Kanto just use pokémon as weapons, for the most part."

Elm shrugged. "Can't say that some pokémon _aren't_ weapons, like Voltorb."

Crystal shrugged, more or less conceding the point. She looked at Kitsu. "Plus, I hear fire stones and such are more common over there. I imagine a lot of Eevees are evolved as soon as they're found, and they're not very common to begin with…"

The professor nodded. It was a known fact that Espeon and Umbreon resulted only if an Eevee was tightly attached to its chosen human, although _how_ was still a mystery. With less of a history of constant war against the inland pokémon, and with evolutionary stones being so rare in this part of the world, the Johto could form closer bonds with their Eevees than the Kanto and so were aware of Espeon and Umbreon, which couldn't be achieved if the Eevee had already been evolved into one of the other three or didn't closely associate with the trainer.

Kitsu sat down on top of the Tentacruel, having decided that she was victorious over her worthy toy foe. She looked about ready to doze off, when her ears perked up and she stared at the door to Elm's private lab. A few moments later, the door opened, and another man in a white lab coat, this one with black hair and younger-looking than Professor Elm, came in.

Crystal recognized him, of course, as Dr. Henry Pine, one of Professor Elm's aides. She smiled and waved, and he waved back before turning to Elm. "You called for me?" He asked.

Elm nodded, grabbing Tyrogue's pokéball from his belt. "I had hoped to send Crystal to Cherrygrove," He said, "To meet with Mr. Pokémon, but her mother's sternly objected. So I need you to go instead, Henry."

Pine let out a sigh, looking to Crystal. "Your mom's afraid of Ledybas?" He asked. It was a Johto phrase, meaning that one was afraid of something that one shouldn't be. But Crystal nodded vigorously. "Yes," She responded. "Most pokémon, in fact."

Pine whistled a little in surprise, then looked back to Elm. "So I'm going to meet Mr. Pokémon, then?" He asked.

Elm nodded, tossing Tyrogue's pokéball to Pine, who caught it easily. "Tyrogue'll be able to keep anything you come across at bay on your way to Cherrygrove," Elm said. "I _was_ going to loan him to Crystal, but the Eevee she helped seems to have taken more of a liking to her."

"Thanks, Professor," Pine said, putting the pokéball in his pocket. "Well, it's a three-day walk to Cherrygrove. Better get going." He pointed at Crystal as he left. "You be good now." He said.

Crystal watched him go, then looked back to Elm. "About Kitsu and me…" She said.

"You gave her a nickname?" Elm asked.

Crystal nodded, then continued. "I know you'll want her back, but…"

Elm shook his head, holding up his hand. "Actually," he said, "I was planning on giving you that Tyrogue, as a thanks for running up to Cherrygrove and for the help you've been since Gold and Silver left. But why don't you keep Kitsu instead?"

Crystal brightened at that, but shook her head after a moment. "My mom won't let me keep a pokémon," She said, reaching over to Kitsu and scratching her between her ears. The Eevee cooed, getting up and hopping from the table onto her lap. Again, she felt a tug at her heartstrings. "I'd really, _really_ love to keep Kitsu, but…"

Elm let out a sigh. "Well," He said. "That's unfortunate. We could certainly keep Kitsu here, but that's a great way to make sure she rarely leaves a pokéball."

Crystal nodded, scratching Kitsu under her chin now. The pokémon cooed contentedly. "I'm practically thinking of taking the Gym challenge," Crystal said.

Elm looked sternly at her. "Crystal, don't even joke about that," He said. "Only very serious trainers should ever attempt that. The Gym leaders are dangerous opponents."

"I know," Crystal sighed. "But I don't want Kitsu to just spend her life in a pokéball…" She laughed a little. "Who imprinted on who?"

"I'd talk about scientific detachment, but you're not a scientist," Elm said. "Why don't you just give your mom some time? Kitsu seems to be docile enough. Maybe she'll come around."

"Maybe," Crystal hoped, leaning down and rubbing her nose against the Eevee's own. Kitsu mimicked the move, _eev-eev_-ing when Crystal pulled away.

Then the door to the lab was almost thrown off of its hinges. The two humans and one pokémon nearly leapt out of their collective skins, looking to the door. A junior aide, a girl only a little older than Crystal, was standing in the door frame, as well as one of the guards for Elm Labs and his Growlithe pokémon companion.

"P-Professor!" The aide cried out. "Dr. Pine was attacked!"

"_What?_" Elm demanded, moving to the door as Crystal stroked Kitsu, trying to get the pokémon to calm down. "Where? By who?"

"Outside, at the end of the street," The guard said, "On the way to his house. It happened so suddenly, the guards on duty weren't able to respond…"

Elm rushed from the lab, and Crystal picked up Kitsu and followed. Outside, Pine was lying at the end of the dirt road that lead up to Elm Labs, conscious and rubbing his head. His hand came away with a little blood - not enough to worry him, apparently, but enough to make Crystal gasp. One of the lab's medics was already on the scene, his coat acting as a makeshift pillow and telling Pine to remain still, while several guards were keeping back any passer-bys. Growlithe had already been released from pokéballs, most acting as guards but one or two sniffing around for something.

"He'll be fine," The medic said when Elm and Crystal got near, forcing Pine to lay back down. "Clubbed from behind by a tree branch, enough to stun but I doubt he'll have a concussion."

"Who did this?" Elm asked, looking to the guards which were even now setting up a formal perimeter. At his words, one detached from the rest. His belt had three pokéballs on it, two of which indicated that their pokémon were still within and one of which was empty. He was the head of guards for Elm Labs, which meant he also doubled as the chief of police for the village, much as how Elm doubled as New Bark Town's leader in crisis situations like this.

"We don't know, sir," The man said, standing ramrod straight when he reached Elm. "We have one witness now, says he saw a young kid with red hair attack Dr. Pine. We're looking into motives now."

"Don't look too far," Pine said from where he lay. Elm turned around, getting down onto a knee.

"What?" The older scientist asked. In response, Pine reached into one pocket, turning it inside-out. Nothing was inside.

"He took Tyrogue," he said, rubbing his head again. "Damn kid…"

Crystal gasped again, as Kitsu pressed close to her chest, clearly uncomfortable with the number of Growlithe around even if none of them were paying any attention to her. Much as Crystal felt attached to Kitsu even after knowing her for less than a day, she'd known Tyrogue for _years_. She hugged the Eevee close to her and started glancing around, feeling as though she could be attacked at any moment by someone intent on taking Kitsu.

Elm looked to Crystal, sensing her reaction and knowing she couldn't be very useful right now anyway. "Crystal, go home," He said, in a voice that brooked no argument. Crystal nodded, not feeling like giving any. She cast a last glance at Dr. Pine, who gave her a half-hearted thumbs up before beginning to answer more questions from Elm.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: Exit Crystal**

Crystal's mother made no secret of her dislike of pokémon, but that didn't mean that she was nasty about it. New Bark Town was small, so news of Dr. Pine being attacked and what his attacker had taken reached her even before Crystal got home. The older woman didn't say a word to Crystal about Kitsu as the young girl refused to stray more than a few feet from the pokémon for the rest of the day.

"Who'd steal a pokémon?" Crystal asked, as Kitsu sat on her bed, licking the fur on her leg. As Elm had suggested, Crystal had taken off the cast at around sunset. The fur on it was pressed down where the metal cast had been, but otherwise the leg seemed to be almost fully healed, if a little stiff. Crystal herself was sitting next to the bed, watching Kitsu and juggling a pokéball between her hands.

"I mean, _who?_" Crystal asked, looking down at the pokéball in her hands. It was technically Kitsu's, but Crystal didn't have the heart to put the Eevee in a pokéball, not after she had spent last night cuddled up to her in her bed (unbeknownst to her mother, who thought that she was simply in the closet).

Kitsu looked at her with one eye, and ventured that only the scum of the Earth, a despicable and thoroughly reprehensible person with precisely no redeeming qualities, would steal a pokémon. Or so Crystal supposed Kitsu meant to say when she coughed and stretched her leg experimentally.

The young girl smiled, putting her head on her mattress, staring up at Kitsu. The Eevee cooed and leaned forward, putting her head on top of Crystal's, burying Crystal's face in her mane. Her fur was downy-soft, and it was difficult to believe that a creature could live in the wilderness and still keep fur this soft.

"And why did it have to be _Tyrogue?_" Crystal asked. Her voice so close to Kitsu's sternum must have ticked Kitsu, because the pokémon leapt away a little, then rolled onto her back and stretched her legs up. Crystal began petting Kitsu's stomach like she might on a Growlithe, and the pokémon seemed about as pleased as a Growlithe would, cooing softly.

"I mean, you don't know this," Crystal said, and she leaned in to Kitsu as though sharing a secret, "And _please_ don't tell my mom, but Tyrogue's actually _saved_ me. Probably not from death, but from a lot of pain. Nido stings, Spearow talons, Rattata bites, this one really unusually mean Sentret…"

Kitsu leaned forward and grabbed Crystal's hand with her mouth, a sign for Crystal to stop petting her. The young girl did, and Kitsu rolled onto her stomach, curling up into a furry ball and clearly intent on falling asleep. Crystal supposed she needed to as well, and so slipped out of her clothes and into her pajamas, sliding into bed. Kitsu wasn't precisely pleased about having to make room for her, but the Eevee settled down after a few moments, falling asleep quickly.

Crystal didn't, thinking instead about the Tyrogue, wondering what kind of monster had stolen him and what he was going to do to him. Battle, most likely, or sell - Tyrogues weren't very common, and it was difficult to tell pokémon apart from one another; their ability to heal fast meant that any kind of branding or tattooing for identification didn't work, and collars couldn't be taken into a pokéball any more than splints could. Someone with few scruples and a desire for cash could get a lot of money for a stolen Tyrogue.

But why a _kid?_ What would a kid want with one?

Crystal rolled over onto her side, careful to not disturb Kitsu as she did. No one could possibly have predicted that Dr. Pine would be walking out of Elm Labs with a Tyrogue. But they _could_ know that they would have a pokémon of some variety. And Elm Labs specialized in pokémon that were feral, or as nearly feral as could be achieved, usually having never been in a pokéball. Except…

Crystal sat bolt upright, a move that startled Kitsu. She looked up at Crystal as though waiting an explanation as to why she had been woken up.

"Starter pokémon," Crystal said, reaching down at petting Kitsu. The Eevee bit Crystal's hand, though - not hard, but enough to let her know that this was a very inadequate explanation. Kitsu went to the end of the bed and lay back down, out of reach of Crystal, and went back to sleep in a very determined way.

Crystal shook her head, laying back down. Of course! Catching pokémon was very hard, nigh-impossible, without a pokémon of one's own to do the fighting. By law, every city and town in the Johto Region had appointed centers where a novice pokémon trainer could get their first decently-strong, League-standard trained pokémon, with Elm Labs being the one for New Bark Town. In smaller towns like New Bark Town, though, most people received pokémon as gifts or inheritances, and so therefore the large fee attached to starter pokémon could be skipped over. But pokémon given as gifts were generally weak, often just-caught such as Eevee was, so someone intent on becoming a trainer was much better off getting a starter.

Most of the starter pokémon in Elm Labs were never given out despite this, since a pokémon given as a gift from a friend meant more than an essentially store-bought League drone. When Gold and Silver had started on their journey to complete the Gym Challenge last year, they had taken two, but a host of others were still waiting there, well-trained and disciplined. They often doubled as helpers around the lab.

Like Tyrogue. Crystal had never actively thought of it before, but she remembered that Tyrogue was one of those League-standard trained pokémon.

Crystal was sure of it: Whoever had clubbed Pine upside the head with a tree branch had been after a strong pokémon, but didn't necessarily care which one. The kid probably wanted to undertake the Gym challenge but didn't have a pokémon of his own and couldn't get one from his family

Crystal put a hand to her mouth. Tyrogue probably had very little to look forward to but being let out of his pokéball only when battle was required of him…or for medical attention, once he'd been in a battle. Unless someone saved him, of course, but Crystal knew how unlikely that was.

Crystal rolled onto her side again, curling up into a ball, feeling tears stinging her eyes. Why _Tyrogue?_ She felt selfish and cruel for thinking it, but Tyrogue wasn't just a random pokémon she had heard was stolen. She _knew_ Tyrogue, had _worked_ with Tyrogue, _depended_ on him, and now…now he was just going to be a gladiator for the rest of his life - a very short one, if the trainer was anything like the monster that Crystal saw him being in her head.

* * *

Kitsu's ears perked up, and she looked down the length of the bed at Crystal. While pokémon were often thought of as intelligent, few had ever thought of them as, or attempted to find out if they were, truly _aware_. Kitsu was not an exception; like any other pokémon, she lived in and for the moment, and was only dimly aware of such things as the past and the future.

But she _was_ aware of the fact that Crystal was upset, deeply troubled. That didn't require thought or full sapience, only instinct and emotion. Kitsu didn't know what the cause of it was - didn't even think that of the fact that there _could_ be a cause. She did know that Crystal had been kind to her, had fed her and healed her, and had only woken her up by accident as a result of her worry.

The Eevee stood, stretched, and walked down the bed, limping slightly due to its formerly broken leg, though it was only mildly uncomfortable now, not even truly painful. She sat down in front of Crystal, who's eyes glistened with tears as she looked into Kitsu's eyes. Kitsu leaned forward and rubbed her head against Crystal's nose, which she knew the human girl liked, then spun around and snuggled up close to the girl, cooing softly in an attempt to calm the girl down. Crystal wrapped an arm around Eevee, pulling her close, and though she didn't seem _much_ happier, she did seem a _little_ happier. Kitsu made a determined effort to remain awake as long as it took for Crystal to fall asleep, then decided that she'd done all she could, and went to sleep herself.

Maybe Crystal would feel better tomorrow.

* * *

Kitsu put forth the opinion that Professor Elm was in a bad mood and maybe Crystal didn't need to come to work today; after all how dirty could the pokémon pens realistically be? Actually, that was just Crystal thinking that, but Kitsu certainly seemed to be intent on not approaching anyone who's expletives could be heard from behind closed doors and down the hall. Crystal would have taken a different route, but the only way to the locker room was by passing by Professor Elm's office.

"Wow," Crystal said, looking down at the Eevee. "I have never heard him even _sort_ of that mad." She picked up Kitsu, who forgot the shouts from down the hall and became more interested in the backpack Crystal was wearing to carry her work clothes. She scrambled up the young girl's shoulder and stood there to sniff at it, before turning around and sitting down, rear on the backpack and forelegs hanging over Crystal's shoulders. The young girl could practically hear the instincts of the Eevee's brain working - from atop Crystal, Kitsu could leap down or at any potential foe or prey. Also, this way she wouldn't have to walk, which was a terrifically tiring exercise.

Crystal stopped a junior aide who was walking by, the same girl that had come in on Crystal, Elm, and Kitsu yesterday. "What's wrong?" She asked.

The junior aide - Melissa, Crystal was pretty sure she was named - made a face as she looked down the hall. Elm had stopped swearing, but the tension was almost palpable. "Uh," She began, tapping her fingers together. "Professor Elm got a phone call today, from that friend near Cherrygrove. Apparently he had _details_ on what he found." She looked at the Eevee sitting on Crystal's shoulder, who looked back silently for a moment before _eev-eev-_ing, showing off her new perch. "That's just adorable," She said.

Kitsu _eev-eev_'d again, but Crystal ignored her. "Details?" She asked.

Melissa sighed. "Yeah. Mr. Pokémon - apparently that's his _real_ name, swear to God - found eggs."

Crystal stiffened. "_Eggs?_" She asked. "You mean egg _shells_, right?" That was a rare find, but not unheard of. The only reason why anyone knew that pokémon bred at all was from shattered egg shells found in wild places and fossilized pokémon eggs excavated from places like the Ruins of Alph.

But Melissa shook her head. "No. _Living_ eggs. Two of them. Or…one now. Apparently one of the eggs cracked yesterday, and the pokémon inside…died." She looked to Kitsu, as though worried about her reaction, but the Eevee was blissfully unaware of what had been said. "A species never seen before, too."

Crystal bit her lip. "Did Professor Elm know?"

"About the eggs?" Melissa asked. "I think so, but he wanted to keep it secret. And I guess he wanted you to pick them up since you're our handler, not a scientist, and you're good with pokémon, so if they hatched while you were coming back…"

Crystal nodded - half her job involved minding the pokémon at Elm Labs, with help from whatever scientist or guard she could rope in. She used to have Gold and Silver for help, but then the two of them suddenly got it into their heads to grab a Cyndaquil and a Totodile and start gallivanting across Johto…at the same time. With only a week's warning. And skipping their last day of work besides.

Sometimes, after a particularly hard day, Crystal hoped they were eaten by a Tyranitar, mind-wiped by a Hypno, or - her personal favorite - frozen solid by a Jynx, but still alive, aware, and used by that Jynx for terrible things that Crystal supposed that she, legal adult or not, was too young to think about.

Not that she was bitter or anything.

"Then I couldn't go," Crystal said. "But no real problem, Dr. Pine could go, he's at least as good as me, and Professor Elm got enough warning. But now Dr. Pine's in bed for a few days and Tyrogue…" She didn't finish the sentence; thinking about Tyrogue in the hands of the horrible person she had built up his kidnapper to be was too much.

"And none of the rest of us are good enough with pokémon to send." Melissa said after a moment.

Crystal decided it'd be a bad idea to say _good point_. "Couldn't Professor Elm go?" She asked. "We could hold down the fort for a week or two."

Melissa shook her head sadly. "He probably _would_ if he could, but Professor Oak is coming tomorrow, so he _needs_ to be here."

Crystal stiffened. Professor Oak…

Once, when she was young and not long after the Kanto region had first contacted the Johto region, she had been coming home from playing with some friends, holding a stuffed Clefairy doll, when a car drove by. Cars were rare - the gasoline to power them was simply nigh-impossible to safely extract without disturbing deep-sea or subterranean pokémon - so she of course chased after it simply to watch it go, and had been followed by many other people who were equally eager to see this strange and exotic sight.

From the car had stepped a few individuals - the President of the Johto region at the time, a few guards in strange uniforms which immediately released Arcanines - not Growlithe - from their pokéballs, and an old man in a white coat.

The old man had been greeted by Professor Elm, and Elm, knowing that everyone was watching, introduced the old man as Professor Oak, his counterpart from the distant, almost mythical Kanto region.

Oak had been all smiles and cheer, had said a few words to the effect of he was going to be the principle financier of Elm Labs from that point on as a sign of trust between Kanto and Johto, but Crystal took none of that in. Even as a child, Crystal could see that everything Oak did was a calculated move. Every smile, every frown, every word carefully chosen for maximum effect.

He had looked at Crystal - no particular reason, their eyes simply locked for a moment. And Crystal, despite being young and a child, could practically _see_ what he saw and thought when he looked at her. He first took in Crystal's approximate height, weight, and age, and compared those to some averages he knew. He took in her stance and appearance and so made some educated guesses about social class and personal habits. Then, in Crystal's mind, he started thinking of _uses_ for her. She clutched her doll protectively and so probably began thinking of her potential job as a pokémon handler, used to calm down trained and experienced but not yet fully controllable pokémon, or manage pokémon who were feral and were to be experimented on. She was of average height and weight, but her hair was an unusual color and she would probably be quite attractive when she became an adult, so a secretary was a good choice as well, though for that she would need the proper training and control.

_Control_. Everything about Professor Oak spoke about his desire to control - more than that, to _command_.

Their eyes broke contact then. Crystal had lasted a few more moments after that, but turned around and ran home as soon as she had snapped from her trance, tears in her eyes and feeling like she had just stared at a Gyrados in human form. Twice since then, Professor Oak had come to Johto to 'check up on things,' most recently last year just after she got her job at Elm labs. She had been sure to be violently ill that day - so she said - and over the week that followed had cleaned, scrubbed, and repaired every inch of Elm Labs she could get to, as though trying to physically remove every trace of Oak's presence from the building.

Crystal dragged herself back to reality only after Melissa snapped her fingers in front of Crystal's eyes. Crystal shook her head, looking at her. "Huh?" She asked.

"I said," Melissa apparently repeated, "You better hurry or else you'll be late. I think Elm will want this place _spotless_."

"S-sorry," Crystal said, as Melissa turned around and walked away. Crystal took to Kitsu, who looked back to her.

_Professor Oak is coming..._

She couldn't deal with Professor Oak, not so soon after Tyrogue being stolen, not with the news that the greatest find in pokémon research history had to be _forgotten about_ while a living embodiment of control came. Melissa was right, Crystal was by no means a scientist, but she certainly could appreciate science when she saw it.

_A pokémon egg…__one has already cracked and died…but the other…_

Crystal started walking, but not towards the locker room.

* * *

Kitsu yawned as though to say, _this is a stupid idea and you are stupid for thinking it up; one day they will write songs about this as a warning to others not to be this stupid._

"Shut up," Crystal responded as she checked her backpack, supposing she had packed enough food for her and Kitsu. Her mother was out running the shop, so she had the house to herself as she checked to make sure she had everything she needed.

Satisfied she did, grabbed a notebook and a pen and scribbled out a quick note, leaving it in plain sight on the kitchen counter.

Then, grabbing Kitsu and propping the pokémon up on her shoulder, she left her home.

_Mom,  
__Went to Cherrygrove with Kitsu. I'll be back soon. Please don't worry too much, and please ask Professor Elm not to fire me.  
__Love,  
__- Crystal_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter**** Four: The Road to Cherrygrove**

"I don't suppose _you'll_ carry _me_ for a little while," Crystal suggested to Kitsu.

Absolutely not, the Eevee informed Crystal, by licking her cheek. Actually, Kitsu, who had apparently decided that sitting atop Crystal's shoulder and backpack was the best spot in the world, was a relatively light load…though that may have been because Crystal, as a handler/janitor at Elm Labs, was used to carrying heavy things.

After hours of walking, following the beaten-dirt path that connected New Bark Town to Cherrygrove City, Crystal was feeling good about her decision. She had no sense of distance, of course, having never left New Bark Town, but she knew that a person moving at a determined pace could cross the distance in three days. There was a nice breeze that was keeping the temperature at a good, tolerable level, and the few pokémon Crystal had seen so far seemed more interested in grabbing berries or bugs to eat, sunbathing on rocks, or running away from her.

"After all," Crystal said, reaching up and scratching Kitsu on the side of her face, "Professor Elm thought I could do this, right? And everyone always goes on about how docile and easy-going the pokémon in this part of the world are."

Kitsu seemed intent on proving that point by attempting to roll onto her back on Crystal's shoulder. The move didn't end well; instead, Kitsu nearly rolled off of Crystal entirely, and only frantic scrabbling and a little bit of pain on Crystal's part kept her on her perch. She settled back down a moment later, _eev-eev_-ing as though to inform Crystal that she had meant to do that.

"Yeah, right," Crystal responded, petting Kitsu again. Apart from her stunt just now, the Eevee seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the trek though the wilderness as well. Her ears were pointed straight up, swiveling often to take in sounds, and sniffing the air every now and then to take in scents, cooing contentedly the whole time. Crystal reminded herself that Kitsu was still fundamentally a wild pokémon, and so must have been enjoying her first trip back to the wilderness for days.

She continued more or less in silence for the remainder of the day, speaking mostly only when something caught her eye or whenever Kitsu attempted to roll onto her back again. She actually succeeded at one point, but must have decided it was uncomfortable, because she rolled back a few moments later.

Night came _fast_ out in the wild, though Crystal had the good sense to stop and set up camp as soon as it began getting too dark to see. She felt she chose the spot well, on the edge of a ridge and near a small stream, facing the direction of the sunset.

She had an easy time setting up the awning she had brought, between a pair of trees with Caterpies climbing over the highest branches, using their string to weave their own beds for the night and either oblivious to or uncaring about the human girl beneath them. Kitsu somehow even figured out what Crystal was doing when she started gathering sticks and dry grass, and helped her make a pile, which Crystal surrounded with stones before lighting a small campfire in order to cook her and Kitsu's dinner.

"Easy," Crystal decided as she sat down on her bedroll after eating, staring into the fire. Wild pokémon usually didn't much like fires, and stayed away from them. Of course, fire-types were actually attracted to them, but there were none in this area. Strangely enough, Kitsu herself seemed to be totally fine with the flames; she kept a respectful distance, but despite the burn she had been suffering from when Crystal first found her, she seemed completely at ease.

"One of your parents was a Flareon, weren't they?" Crystal asked as Kitsu sat down on the bedroll, beginning to lick her fur clean, not offering any response to Crystal's query. The young girl shrugged, lying down on the bedroll, crossing her hands behind her head and looking up at the stars as she kicked off her shoes. There were so many of them - New Bark Town didn't precisely have a thriving nightlife, but there were always street lamps or some such, so this was the first time Crystal had seen so many stars in the sky. As she watched, she even saw a shooting star.

"Make a wish," She thought aloud, and laughed a little, closing her eyes. _I wish that when I get back, mom won't ground me until I'm eighty-four_.

That she had left her mom behind, worried sick, didn't really enter Crystal's mind. Gold and Silver had left at around the same age as she was now, and if her luck held out like this, she'd be back to New Bark Town in no time at all. She didn't want to trapeze across Johto, she just wanted to help out Professor Elm and keep Kitsu close by for as long as possible.

Kitsu moved next to her, laying down with her body pressed against Crystal's side, facing the fire. Her ears remained perked up and attentive, but her eyes were closed. Crystal knew that she would sleep soundly enough, but awaken as soon as she heard something out of place.

The girl smiled. Quick trip to Cherrygrove, get the egg, quick trip back. Skip seeing Professor Oak, help Professor Elm in his studies, spend more time with Kitsu, and show her mother that Crystal as an adult now and would make grown-up decisions when she wanted.

Easy.

* * *

Crystal woke up several times during the night. Whether or not she felt she was having an easy time so far, she _was_ sleeping in a place she wasn't familiar with. Still, she drifted back to sleep easily enough, each time always re-assured by the presence of Kitsu.

Which was what kept her awake the final time, when she reached out to grasp Kitsu, and found the pokémon was missing.

Crystal's eyes opened wide, and she sat up quickly, looking around. The fire she had lit had burned itself out over the course of the night, while the surrounding grass was tipped with dewdrops and a light mist covered the area. She could hear Pidgeys chirping as they woke up, as well as the chattering of some Rattatas.

But she didn't see Kitsu anywhere; the Eevee had disappeared. Crystal stood, sliding her shoes back on. "Kitsu?" She asked, looking around. Some of the tall grass nearby looked like it had been parted, as though a Kitsu-sized thing had passed through it. She walked forward, into the grass, calling Kitsu's name.

Horrible images began to dance in Crystal's head. Kitsu getting up during the night and being snatched up by a Noctowl. Kitsu running into a Weedle and being poisoned. Kitsu being surrounded and swarmed by Rattatas…

Crystal didn't see the Ekans clearly in the grass, but she did see a motion down near her foot. She jumped back just in time, the Ekans' mouth clamping down on empty air rather than her foot. Its fangs glistened as it eyed her, slithering closer.

Crystal stood still, biting her lip to keep from crying out in surprise. Ekans were easily startled, but they generally struck only once, then slithered off to safety, uninterested in trying to actually fight something as large as a human. Why didn't this one leave…? She took a step backwards, then a second, but the Ekans followed her with determination.

"Get away!" Crystal demanded, reaching down and grabbing a rock near her foot, throwing it. The Ekans dodged aside easily, then jumped at Crystal suddenly, fangs aimed for her throwing arm…

…at which point it was intercepted by a small, brown ball of fur with ears and a tail. Kitsu landed with the Ekans seized in her mouth, grabbed near the base of the serpent's skull so it couldn't bite her, though it writhed and struggled to escape. The Eevee began shaking her head violently, until there was a wet _snap _from the Ekans. It stopped moving quite suddenly after that.

Kitsu waited a moment more, then turned to Crystal, the dead pokémon still in her mouth. She closed her eyes and made her _eev-eev_ sound, clearly pleased with herself.

Crystal realized she wasn't breathing, and began again with deliberate will, falling to her knees and putting a hand to her chest, trying to calm her hammering heart.

Kitsu trotted forward, dropping the Ekans at Crystal's side and cooing, rubbing against Crystal. The young girl fumbled over Kitsu before picking her up and hugging her tight. "D-don't disappear like that!" She cried, burying her face in Kitsu's fur. The Eevee simply cooed, probably thinking that Crystal was grateful for Eevee's kill and not realizing that she had saved Crystal from _being_ killed.

The young girl set Kitsu down a few minutes later, standing on shaking legs and heading back towards her camp, though not letting Kitsu out of her sight. The pokémon grasped the dead Ekans in her jaws and carried it back with Crystal, who was still too shell-shocked to care what Kitsu did with her kill.

Suddenly, the road to Cherrygrove seemed much less exciting and easy. Crystal could barely eat her breakfast, and the fact that Kitsu began tearing into the Ekans - carefully avoiding the serpent's head and the poison glands therein - didn't help. She tried not to focus on it.

"You were right," Crystal said, rubbing her forehead. "I was right. Whatever. This was a _stupid_ idea. But it was my idea and I'm not backing out now."

Kitsu was too busy eating for Crystal to imagine her response, using her paws to pry open the Ekans' rib cage and get at some of its tastier internal organs. Crystal looked away - as a handler, she'd seen worse when feeding some pokémon, but this early in the morning, and after what had just happened, she wasn't in the right frame of mind to deal with the sight.

A part of her remembered reading somewhere that it was a bad idea to let a captured pokémon hunt its own food, but Crystal ignored that part right now as she gathered up the awning and covered the remains of her fire with dirt, to make sure any embers that may have lingered were definitely out. By the time she was packed, Kitsu had finished her own breakfast and licked her face and paws clean, and was now sitting next to Crystal's backpack, waiting patiently for another day of not having to walk.

"Urg," Crystal said, thinking about where Kitsu's mouth had been just a moment beforehand. Without looking at it, she kicked the dead Ekans into the tall grass, then went to her backpack and grabbed out a cloth and some pokémon treats for Kitsu that also doubled as a mouthwash. The Eevee gobbled down the food eagerly, but was less keen on Crystal rubbing her face down with a moistened towel. She didn't get to have much a say in the matter, though.

"There," Crystal said, pulling back after a few minutes. Kitsu wasn't cooing anymore, instead she was sitting on her haunches, using both of her front paws to rub her face and eyeing Crystal. "I'm not having Ekans-breath in my face all morning," Crystal said firmly, wringing out the towel and putting it away, then sliding her backpack on. Kitsu must have decided the towel was worth it, because she was rubbing against Crystal's leg moments later, eagerly waiting to be picked up and ride the Crystal-mobile again. With a sigh, the young girl picked up her pokémon, helping her climb onto her shoulders and waiting for Kitsu get to get steady on there. Then she was off again, following the dirt path to Cherrygrove. She'd only just started, she couldn't turn back _now_.

* * *

The day turned out to be a dreary one; fog had rolled down from the nearby mountains, bringing with it colder temperatures than Crystal had really expected. She also ran afoul of more pokémon - a pair of Rattatas not long after setting out, and a Pidgey at about midday. The Rattatas scrammed at a stern look and growl from Kitsu, but the Pidgey, for whatever reason, got it into its head that it could actually take the Eevee.

Crystal was frightened by the way Kitsu fought - she moved and sounded totally different from the Eevee that Crystal had known over the previous few days. The Ekans attack had been such a quick thing, but this Pidgey could move and dodge, avoiding Kitsu's paws and teeth, and rake the Eevee with its talons on its passes, as well as make occasional dives at Crystal that the girl was usually able to avoid. Crystal ended up with a scratch on her cheek, while Kitsu earned one atop her head. The Eevee used that particular dive, however, as her chance to batter it with her tail. The Pidgey fell to the ground, not seriously hurt, but Kitsu lunged forward and swiped with her paw. The flying-type was thrown into the tall grass alongside the road as a result, and didn't emerge from it for another round.

Crystal had a hand to her mouth, not caring about the cut on her cheek as she watched Kitsu, who paced back and forth for a few moments, waiting, until she decided that the Pidgey was definitely defeated and turned around, walking back up to Crystal. At least the Eevee didn't act like nothing had happened - that would have been too much for Crystal to handle. She was jumpy, adrenaline clearly still pumping, twitching and looking around at every large sound, ready for another fight.

The young girl bit her lip as she slung her backpack from her shoulders, getting down onto one knee and rifling through it until she found a small potion for Kitsu's cut.

"Thanks," Crystal said, letting Kitsu sniff the spray bottle before squirting her wound. Kitsu winced a little at the initial sting, but must have remembered the smell of the potion from when she had first met Crystal, as she accepted the few sprays that Crystal made.

"That'll do for now," Crystal said, putting the potion away. "But we can't fight everything that wants to fight us, okay?"

Kitsu stepped forward, getting onto her haunches and pressing her forelegs to Crystal's chest for balance. She leaned forward and clamped Crystal's nose lightly, then moved her head a little and licked at the cut Crystal had earned on her cheek.

"Hey," The girl objected, grasping Kitsu and lifting her up as she stood, helping her get back onto her shoulder and backpack. "Stop that. I _remember_ what you were eating this morning."

And it was delicious, Kitsu responded by rubbing her cheek against Crystal's own, then settling down, eyes closed but ears alert, as usual.

Kitsu had to scare away other pokémon throughout the day, but didn't have to fight again, thankfully. Despite the horror stories told by her mother, most pokémon didn't even bother them in the slightest. Crystal saw numerous pokémon simply going about their business, sometimes dashing off to hide, more often simply ignoring Crystal. Once, there was a Sentret standing on its tail in the grass, simply watching Crystal as she approached. She slowed when she got near, but the Sentret didn't do anything other then let out a slight _huff_ when it saw Kitsu riding on Crystal, then disappear into the tall grass.

"Well, today ended up okay," Crystal said that night, as she rolled out her bedroll next to a fire again, then set up her awning. Kitsu eagerly climbed onto one end of the bedroll and curled up into a ball, watching the flames but clearly quite tired - Crystal didn't quite understand why, as she had been doing all the walking. Her own legs were stiff, but she was fairly active and healthy, so she knew she'd be good to go tomorrow.

Kitsu devoured the food Crystal presented her with, after Crystal made her own instant noodle with water from the stream that ran parallel to the road. She was less eager and hopeful today, and the mist didn't help her mood, but she still was feeling like she'd made the right choice.

"This time tomorrow, we'll be in Cherrygrove," Crystal said with a smile, lying down after she finished eating. Kitsu again climbed next to her, snuggling against the girl. "Pokécenters have actual beds…I think there's a fee, but it shouldn't be too much…" She rolled onto her side, petting Kitsu. "First time I've ever been to a real, honest-to-goodness city. Think it'll be fun?"

Stop making those noises and go to sleep, Kitsu said. Or else her ears just twitched. The pokémon was already fast asleep.

Crystal let out a long sigh, closing her own eyes. She opened them after a second. "And don't disappear tomorrow morning," She insisted.

Whatever, Kitsu said. Or she just sighed in her sleep. Crystal smiled, closing her eyes again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes  
**It's _possible_ that I had just finished reading the two _Love Hina_ novels before writing this chapter.  
Maybe.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Five: Cherrygrove City**

The place was barely larger than New Bark Town!

Crystal frowned as she looked down at Cherrygrove City from atop a hill, Kitsu standing alongside of her rather than riding her shoulder. She was sorely disappointed by what she saw.

"_City_ my butt," Crystal said with a sigh, shoulders slumping and crossing her arms. Okay, on a second glance, it was _much_ bigger than New Bark Town, but the term 'city' didn't seem like it could possibly apply to such a tiny settlement. Like New Bark Town, it lacked significant defenses, due to the docile nature of the surrounding pokémon. Most of the buildings were homes or small stores, though a large building dominated the town near the entrance that Crystal was approaching. Unlike New Bark Town, the roads were made out of cobbled stone, and buildings featured concrete more often than simple wood or rock. It also had a modest fishing dock that gave it access to the Southern Sea, and a few offshore islands looked to be inhabited as well, as Crystal could make out artificial lights against the approaching night on those islands from where she stood.

Crystal began walking again, Kitsu trotting alongside of her, clearly not caring about the let-down of the city, possibly because she didn't have any built-up expectations of the place. The two reached the periphery of Cherrygrove quickly, marked by a series of guard towers along the road. She waved to a guard atop one tower as she approached, and he waved back, then turned to another guard, who was eating something, and spoke to him. The second disappeared after a moment, but re-appeared a minute later at the base of the tower. He was pretty much exactly what Crystal expected from a city guard in a city that had no history of pokémon attacks: middle-aged and slightly overweight, wearing his uniform in a casual way and carrying a clipboard that looked like it had more dust than paper on it.

The four pokéballs at his belt, however, looked well-maintained, and all of them had glowing indicator lights to show presence of a pokémon inside. Crystal wondered in an abstract way what pokémon he had, but decided that ideally, she would never know. His badge identified him as Officer Mulligan.

"New Bark Town?" Mulligan asked as he approached. Crystal nodded, bowing slightly. The guard bowed back - it was a country tradition. "Crystal Tsubaki," She responded. She'd never left New Bark Town, but she did know the protocols for entering another settlement. She reached into her pocket and produced her identification booklet. "I'm a handler from Elm Labs."

The guard nodded, making a few notes on the clipboard as he took her ID booklet and looked it over. He looked down at Kitsu, then to Crystal's waist. "No other pokémon?" he asked.

Crystal shook her head, taking off her backpack. "You can check if you like," she offered.

The guard waved her off, then got down on his knees to regard the Eevee. Kitsu approached cautiously, sniffing at his clipboard.

"Kitsu is harmless," Crystal assured the guard. He held out his hand experimentally. Kitsu sniffed that too, then offered a few licks before backing off and sitting down. Crystal found it as likely that she smelled whatever he had been eating as much as good behavior on her part, but she was nevertheless relieved. She made a mental note to give Kitsu a treat once they were through the guard towers.

"Seems that way," Mulligan said, standing up and looking through the papers he had. "Handlers…handlers…ah, here we go." He read a few moments, then looked Crystal in the eye, occasionally glancing down at the clipboard.

"Alright. By Cherrygrove City code and as a handler, you are allowed access to Cherrygrove City with one pokémon. This pokémon must be kept in a container of some kind while within city limits, excluding within the bounds of Cherrygrove Pokémon Center or other designated area. You are not to partake in any pokémon battle while within city limits. You may not have more than one pokémon on your person while within Cherrygrove City limits, and that pokémon must be the pokémon registered herein…" He paused a moment, writing down something on the clipboard, before continuing. "In the event of pokémon evolution, you must inform the Cherrygrove City Guard within twelve hours.

"As a handler for Elm Labs, you are allowed full passage through Cherrygrove City and to all other cities as though you were an advanced trainer. In all other respects, however, you will be allowed only the rights afforded to an intermediate trainer. Do you understand these conditions, and will you comply with them?"

Crystal paused, biting her lip. "I understand them, but…Kitsu doesn't have a pokéball," She said. That was mostly true; in fact, she had simply left it behind, not realizing that Cherrygrove City had a stricter enforcement policy on letting pokémon wander within it than New Bark Town did. It amounted to the same thing, however.

The guard frowned. "You walked all the way from New Bark Town without keeping it in a pokéball?" He asked.

Crystal nodded, looking worried. "She's never needed one, never done anything-"

"Just wait here a moment," Mulligan said, turning around and walking back up to the tower. Crystal wrung her hands together as she did, looking down at Kitsu. The pokémon was sitting calmly, waiting. Crystal smiled a little, getting down on her knees and petting the Eevee.

"Don't worry, we'll get you in," She said, rubbing Kitsu just below her left ear. The pokémon liked that, cooing softly. A few moments later, the officer returned, holding a small, round object in his hands.

"Do you have two hundred pallets?" He asked, holding up the object - a pokéball.

Crystal bit her lip, but nodded, fishing through her pocket and producing some crumpled bills. The guard nodded as well. "Alright," He said as she counted out the money. "Then you just bought this. There _is_ a license that will let you carry your pokémon around outside of her pokéball, but it costs ten thousand pallets."

Crystal shook her head. "I don't have that kind of money."

"Didn't think so," The guard said, shrugging as he handed Crystal the pokéball in exchange for her money. "But just letting you know in case you ever did. Trainers get the license for free, though, if they get an advanced score on their tests."

Crystal held the empty pokéball in her hands, looking down at Kitsu. The pokémon looked back, not realizing what was going on.

"Sorry," Crystal said, holding out the pokéball. Kitsu - calm and at ease at the moment - didn't realize to try and not get caught in the ball's energy beam. Within seconds, she disappeared with the ball. There was a moment of worry on Crystal's part - she knew that pokéballs could fail to capture a healthy pokémon. The ball wobbled a little bit in her hands, but within seconds the indicator light glowed red.

"Alright," Mulligan said, making a few checks on his clipboard. "Welcome to Cherrygrove City. You may now enter."

Crystal nodded, walking forward a few feet. "Y-You said that Kitsu can be out within the pokémon center?" She asked.

Mulligan nodded. "Big building when you enter. Can't miss it." He said helpfully. He was talking to kicked-up dust, however, as Crystal had started running.

* * *

Kitsu was by no means unintelligent - she was just simple, like most pokémon. She didn't understand why everything had become red for a long moment, then when things faded back, everything looked different, smelled different, sounded different.

But she didn't like it. Her fur stood on end and she growled, ears pressing back against her skull and tail tucked between her legs as she looked around, breathed deep to take in the suddenly different smells. How had this happened? What was going on?

She saw Crystal come up to her, reaching out one hand tentatively. Kitsu glared at the hand, not trusting anything at the moment, but after a few seconds she leaned forward and sniffed Crystal's hand. _She_ smelled the same. The pokémon inched forward, cooing to try and calm herself down and crawling into Crystal's outstretched arms, grateful for this bastion of familiarity against the strangeness that everything had become.

Crystal seemed distraught as well, holding Kitsu tightly. Had the red light engulfed Crystal as well? Had they both suddenly been taken to this place of strange smells?

In her fear and unease, Kitsu didn't notice the pokéball, now hanging at Crystal's belt.

* * *

"I need a room," Crystal said, Kitsu having resumed her normal, familiar perch on Crystal's shoulder. The Eevee was pressed closer to her than normal, and licked at her face as though in thanks while eyeing the attending nurse for the pokémon center. As Crystal spoke, she handed her handler license over.

The nurse nodded as she glanced it over, finding the first room available and handing the key for it to Crystal, wanting to get this insane, teal-haired kid out of her main lobby. Cherrygrove's center was normally such a quiet, boring place, and the nurse wanted a return to that as soon as possible, and hoped she'd never have to deal with someone bursting through the doors and activating their pokéballs again.

Crystal accepted her room key, then dashed off as fast as her legs would take her, not caring that Kitsu had to dig her paws into her shoulder in order to keep from falling off. The Eevee seemed at least as eager to get to someplace small and sort things out.

The room was small and Spartan - a small bed, a bedside table with lamp and radio, and a tiny cabinet. The girl made her way over to the bed, carefully taking Kitsu off of her shoulder before removing her backpack.

"I'm sorry," The girl said, reaching out and petting Kitsu. "I'm sorry…we needed to go through the city…I'm sorry…"

Kitsu didn't seem to care too much, instead sitting on the bed, letting Crystal pet her. The pokémon must have already put the experience behind her, though she remained jumpy. Crystal shook her head as she stood, taking off most of her clothes and climbing into the bed. She _had_ planned to hit the public showers that each pokémon center maintained - after three days on the road, she was getting a little ripe - but Kitsu's unease meant that Crystal was going to put that off for the night.

"You could use a bath too, though," Crystal said, reaching out and petting Kitsu.

Just _try_ it, the pokémon challenged with a slight cough.

* * *

"Get _back_ here!" Crystal called as she chased after Kitsu. The pokémon was running full speed away from Crystal, circling the perimeter of the hot spring bath. The only way out was either through the door to the hot springs - which Kitsu didn't know how to open - or with wings to fly over the wall that surrounded it, which Kitsu didn't have.

Crystal caught up with the Eevee when she stopped near the base of the fence, trying to paw her way out, and scooped her up. The twelve-year-old had only a towel on to cover herself, and was grateful that no one else was in the hot spring at the moment to see her madly chasing after her own pokémon. She'd never even known that Cherrygrove had hot springs, but apparently it did, and the pokémon center owned one of the larger ones. Instead of public showers, like most cities, Cherrygrove's pokémon center had partitioned the hot spring into two parts, one for boys and one for girls. She had doubled-checked, and found that pokémon were allowed in, as long as they were small like Kitsu.

Of course, there was a thousand-pallet charge, a huge chunk of the money that Crystal had brought with her, but after three days of walking the young girl felt the expense was worth it.

"You _need_ this," The girl insisted as she carried Kitsu over to the water, shucked her towel, and stepped in. The Eevee stared at the water as though it were acid, and scrabbled madly as Crystal grabbed her by her sides and lowered her into it as well until the Eevee stopped struggling, either giving in or deciding to wait for her chance to escape.

"_Definitely_ Flareon parents," Crystal joked.

You will _pay_ for this, Kitsu seemed to say with her glare as Crystal grabbed a small bucket and poured water over the pokémon, completely drenching her, then producing some shampoo and pouring some into her hands. She'd had to clean unruly pokémon before at Elm Labs, so knew what she was doing and how to keep Kitsu in place as she worked the shampoo through her fur, Kitsu standing there and taking it with a betrayed look on her face.

"Oh come on," Crystal said. "You'll smell great and you'll be clean. And I even once gave a bath to a _Growlithe_ that loved it."

_Sleep with an eye open_, was the impression Crystal received as she poured water over Kitsu again, rinsing her fur thoroughly. At length, she finished, finally letting go of Kitsu.

"There," She said, moving away to give Kitsu room and into a deeper part of the hot spring. "Try not to undo the work in five seconds."

Kitsu stood, climbing out of the bath like she was old and worn out, shaking herself dry and then beginning to rub herself into the stones that surrounded the hot spring, trying to get the smell of the shampoo out of her fur.

Crystal just shook her head as she moved back to the edge of the hot spring, grabbing the provided brushes and shampoo for herself and beginning to scrub herself down. Kitsu eyed her incredulously as she rolled around on her back, as though trying to figure out why _anything_ would want to get wet, and worse, _change their smell_.

"Maybe it's just a human thing," Crystal admitted as she washed her own hair clean, then rinsed it by plunging her head into the water. When she came back up, she sent a spray that got Kitsu wet again. The Eevee shook herself dry a second time, then walked over to Crystal as she settled back against the rock wall. Crystal reached out tentatively, rubbing the top of Kitsu's still-damp head. The pokémon seemed to sigh, lying down on her stomach and shaking her head.

"At least I didn't try to give you a manicure," The girl pointed out. "Or a _haircut_."

The Eevee shuddered, as though actually understanding what Crystal was saying, though the girl found it more likely that she was just unused to being wet. She grabbed one of the towels she had taken and began rubbing Kitsu down. The Eevee seemed to like _that_, at least, twisting and turning so that Crystal dried off as much as possible.

"So," Crystal said as she finished. "Now we just need to find this Mr. Pokémon guy. With a name like that, he shouldn't be hard to find, right?"

Kitsu simply cooed contentedly, now that she was much drier than before, and came over to Crystal to sniff at her arm.

"Can't be his real name," Crystal said, as she got out of the water, Kitsu backing up a respectful distance, probably expecting her to shake down. Crystal chuckled a little as she grabbed her other towel and wrapped it around herself, walking towards the locker room and beckoning Kitsu to follow. "Wonder why he changed it to _that_, though? The guy must get beaten up by every third person he meets…"


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes  
**Gaaah! This is what happens when I get roughly 1,000,000,000 new video games. I fall behind on updating. Need to get internet at my house.  
Actually, the other reason I haven't updated is that the section dividers I (and 99% of writers) use - the "* * *" symbols - aren't showing up on documents I upload. This has been bugging the heck out of me but for the life of me I can't fix it. And apparently I'm not the only one this is happening to. Anyone spoken to the site managers yet?

Anyway, here's chapters six, seven, and eight coming your way.

* * *

**Chapter Six: Mr. P****okémon**

"He lives _north_ of the city?" Crystal asked. "Not _in_ the city?"

The attending nurse of the pokémon center's lobby - this one a middle-aged man who hadn't been present for the ruckus Crystal had caused last night and so had no reason to rush her along- nodded. "Last I heard, yes," The man said. "About an hour north. He's kind of a strange hermit, lives by himself. You're lucky you caught me, I don't think anyone else would have known where he lives."

"Isn't he worried about wild pokémon?" Crystal asked, looking at Kitsu, who had climbed off of her shoulder and onto the lobby's reception desk, inspecting a potted plant there.

"I think he has a few of his own," The nurse said. "From what I hear, he's a good friend of Professor Elm's. I guess Elm goes to him for outside-the-box thinking every now and then, or something."

Crystal considered. "Um…does he live off of the main road, or…?"

The nurse nodded. "On a wooded hill, but you'll be able to see it if you just follow the road north. Keep your eye open, you can't miss it."

Crystal nodded, then bowed slightly in thanks. "I'll be going then," She said, reaching over and grabbing Kitsu just as she was about to try nibbling on the plant. The Eevee looked disappointed as Crystal walked towards the door of the pokémon center, Kitsu following on foot.

"Um, ma'am?" The attending nurse said, as Crystal neared the door. She turned around. "You're forgetting something," The nurse said, pointing at the Eevee.

Crystal felt her heart freeze. "R…right," She said, reaching down to her belt and grasping the lone pokéball there. Kitsu stared at it, ears alert, but still didn't seem to realize what it was.

"O-okay, Kitsu," The girl said, holding forward the pokéball and pressing the activator. Red light shot out and engulfed the Eevee. This time, though, she reacted to it - the last thing Crystal saw of her before she was swallowed by the ball was her fur standing on end and a snarl on her face. Now that the ball was keyed to her, she couldn't possibly escape from it.

Crystal hurried out the door, holding the ball in both hands. She didn't want to this to Kitsu again…the pokémon was so frightened of pokéballs, and why shouldn't she be? Why shouldn't _anything_ be? To be locked in some kind of suspended animation…

The girl began running through the city streets, making her way to the northern guard towers as quickly as her feet would take her and dodging around the bustling morning business. It took her about fifteen minutes to reach the gates, and by then she was out of breath, chest heaving as she reached the guard towers. As before, a guard came down, but as before he took his time. Crystal wanted to shout for him to hurry up, but knew that would be a great way to piss him off and wouldn't help in the slightest.

"Name?" The guard asked when he came out of the tower, and Crystal had calmed down slightly.

"Crystal Tsubaki," The girl said.

The guard looked across his clipboard. "Leaving so soon?" He asked as he found her name. Crystal nodded, still holding Kitsu's pokéball tightly.

"Destination?"

"Um…" Crystal said, looking north. "Mr. Pokémon's house?"

The guard gave her an annoyed look. "Ma'am, please be serious about this."

"I am!" Crystal objected. "I'm a handler from Elm Labs. Professor Elm wanted me to pick something up from Mr. Pokémon." She reached into her pocket and produced her ID book. "See? Elm Labs, right there."

The man looked over the ID book, then nodded. "Sorry. I'll just put you down as 'wilderness,' then." He wrote on the clipboard, then looked back to Crystal. "Do you have anything to declare? Any TMs, HMs, money received in excess of fifty thousand pallets, or any controlled substances acquired while within Cherrygrove City?" Crystal shook her head. "Do you have any pokémon to declare, other than the Eevee you entered with?"

Crystal shook her head again, and the man wrote again. "Are you willing to submit any pokéballs on your possession to inspection, in order to determine the veracity of your previous declaration?"

Crystal paused a moment, sorting through what the guard said. "Yes," She said after a second, holding forward her sole pokéball.

The guard took it, depressing some buttons on its surface and reading the equator of the pokéball as it listed out what was inside. He nodded when finished, and handed the pokéball back before checking something off.

"Are you willing to submit your person to an inspection to determine the veracity of your previous declarations?" The guard asked.

Crystal blanched. "My…person?"

The guard smiled. "Just your backpack." The guard said.

"Oh…yeah, sure," Crystal said, handing her backpack over. The guard unzipped the main pocket it and glanced in, not doing a thorough search.

"Alright," He said, handing the pack back to Crystal and checking off something on his clipboard. "By the authority of Cherrygrove City Guard, you are now permitted to leave the bounds of this city." He gave a formal bow, which Crystal returned, then hurried off until the guard had returned to within the tower, and Crystal had entered the woods surrounding Cherrygrove's north. She took in a deep breath, held forth Kitsu's pokéball, and activated it.

The pokémon emerged seconds later, completing her snarl, then looking around, confused and growling.

"Kitsu," Crystal said softly, getting down on a knee again. The Eevee eyed her as she reached out a hand like before, sniffing at it.

"There," Crystal said, making sure to keep the pokéball out of sight, attaching it to the back of her belt. She _couldn't_ keep doing this to the Eevee, she decided as she scooted forward slightly, petting Kitsu under her chin.

"Tell you what," Crystal said, speaking softly to calm down Kitsu. "We'll skip Cherrygrove on the way back. Just head straight home. Okay?"

She reached out with her other hand, but Kitsu backed away from Crystal at the sight, flinching slightly, tail and ears down in submission as though expecting the pokéball.

"No, no, no," Crystal insisted, holding open her hand to show it was empty. "See? No pokéball. Okay?" She reached forward again, but Kitsu scurried away a few feet, before sitting back down and staring at her.

The young girl felt a needle in her heart and tears in her eyes. "Kitsu…" She said softly, moving forward again. "I'm sorry…please don't…"

She got next to Kitsu getting onto her hands and knees and looking the pokémon in her eye. "I'll never put you in a pokéball again," She insisted. "Never. I _promise_. Okay? Just don't hate me…don't be afraid of me…"

Kitsu stared, then came forward, sniffing Crystal's face, before closing her eyes and rubbing her head against Crystal's cheek. Crystal laughed a little in relief, reaching over and petting Kitsu on her back, then scooping her up into her arms and helping her onto her shoulder. The pokémon settled down into her normal sitting position, and Crystal stood, beginning to walk.

* * *

There were more bug-types than normal-types on the road north, Crystal noted as she walked. Not noted for their intelligence, the bug-types kept trying to pick fights with Crystal, but each time she managed to run away from them. Kitsu didn't seem to be in the mood for fighting herself.

A little more than an hour from Cherrygrove, Crystal paused on the road, looking up a hill next to a stream and trying to sort out what she was looking at there in the distance. It was _like_ a house, but made from metal, with tires like a car, though these were flat, the rubber on them actually cracked open in places. It was far larger than any car that Crystal had ever seen in pictures. It had windows, too, like a one-story house. But the place must have been _tiny_ on the inside.

As she approached, she began to make out details. Someone had set up an awning over the rear of the car-house, creating a kind of patio with a table and chairs, and a line strung between the camper and the tree had laundry drying on it. Sitting in one of the patio chairs was someone who was crazy.

Crystal didn't know exactly _what_ about the person in front of her told her that he was crazy. He actually didn't look much older than Crystal, maybe seventeen at most. He wore a red-and-white hat with a forward brim over his eyes, a red vest over a black shirt, and blue jeans. He wasn't wearing shoes, and his socks were red and blue, mismatched. He had his head down against his chin, possibly asleep. Sleeping next to him, on the table, was a scruffy-looking Pikachu.

Crystal paused about a dozen feet from the man, looking to Kitsu. The Eevee stared back at her as though to remind her that this was _her_ idea.

"Um…" She began. "Mr. Pokémon?"

The sleeping man didn't stir. Somehow, with the descriptions of Mr. Pokémon that Crystal had heard, she had been expecting a crazy old man with a too-long beard and mad eyes, not a sleeping teenager in mismatched socks.

"Excuse me?" Crystal asked, stepping forward. "Are you Mr. Pokémon?"

The Pikachu's ears twitched, and it opened its eyes, looking at Crystal and Kitsu, eyes wide a moment before narrowing.

"Uh," Crystal said, quickly reaching into her jacket pocket and producing her bag of treats for Kitsu. The pokémon on her shoulder's ears perked up at the sight of them, but so did the Pikachu's.

Crystal fed one to Kitsu, so as not to disappoint her pokémon, then tentatively stepped forward and offered another to the Pikachu, bribing it not to shock her or Kitsu. The Pikachu took the treat greedily in its forepaws, beginning to nibble it down. After it was about halfway through, it looked over to the sleeping teen and let loose a slight shock from its cheek pouches.

"Gyaaah!" The teen exclaimed, sitting bolt upright instantly. His eyes were yellow, but then again, Crystal's hair was naturally a dark teal. She could hardly call his eye coloration strange. "Dang it, Peek, I already fed you…oh," The teen had turned to his Pikachu - apparently nicknamed Peek - to scold the pokémon, but noticed Crystal and Kitsu seconds later.

"Oh," The teen said again, not getting up. "Huh. Girls normally stay away from me."

Crystal bristled. "Wh-what?" She demanded.

"Bad way to begin a conversation. Right," The teen said, looking back to Peek. "Why didn't you bail me out there?" The Pikachu ignored him, lying back down after finishing its treat and going back to sleep. The teen sighed, standing up. "Let's start over," He said, holding out his hand. "Hi! My name is Mr. Pokémon."

Crystal stared, then reached out and took his hand tentatively. "Crystal Tsubaki," She said, shaking his hand. It was surprisingly soft. "Um…I was sent by the Professor-"

"Gyaaah!" The teen repeated, and jumped away from Crystal. Peek opened one eye, decided he was being an idiot, and closed it again. "Th…the Professor? Out here? No way. No way, I thought I'd…" he paused a moment. "…wait. Not _the_ Professor. You mean Professor Elm."

"Uh…yeah," Crystal said, putting her hands behind her back so that she could rub off the one she'd shook hands with, wondering for a second if his crazy was infectious. "About the eggs?"

Mr. Pokémon paused, scratching the back of his head. "Um…what eggs?"

Crystal stared blankly. "The…the eggs," She said, hoping she hadn't come all this way for nothing. "The two eggs you found. One of them cracked so the pokémon died, but the second one was still alive when I started walking here. It didn't…"

The teen snapped his fingers, pointing at her. "Ha!" he said. "Only someone from Elm Labs would know that. Good job!"

Crystal just kept staring as he walked past her, towards the door to his house-car. "Come on in," He invited, as his Pikachu stood, stretched, and hopped down from the table, heading inside when he opened the door. "I actually just came back from a shopping trip to Cherrygrove a few days ago."

Crystal bit her lip. "Um…okay," She agreed, walking forward tentatively. The house-car had stairs that lead up into it. It smelled…not bad, but definitely distinctive. To Crystal's right, it looked like a conventional car, with the front window, two chairs, and steering wheel…but to the left, the greater length of the vehicle, it looked more like a compressed house - a small cabinet and bed against one wall, a table with two chairs built into the other, leading to a bathroom in the back, with a fridge, sink, and oven at the very front.

"Like it?" Mr. Pokémon asked eagerly. "I found this place when I moved here a while back, just sitting on the side of the road. Nobody wanted to go near it, they thought it was infested with Ghastly or something."

"Was it?" Crystal asked.

"Oh yeah," Mr. Pokémon responded. "But Peek and me took care of them." He opened the fridge. "Okay, I've got soda, lemonade, water, coffee, some kind of juice. Want any?"

Crystal was too busy staring down the length of the house-car to really understand what he was saying. She shook her head after a moment to clear it. "Um…lemonade, please." She said, as Kitsu hopped from her shoulder, beginning to explore the place, though tentatively and with a wary eye on the Pikachu, which was keeping an eye on her itself.

"I could never stand to put Peek in a pokéball, either," Mr. Pokémon said as he handed Crystal a bottle of lemonade, grabbing a soda for himself and nodding towards the Eevee. "Only time I did, when he came out, he was terrified of everything."

Crystal opened her lemonade, but didn't drink it yet. "Yeah…" She said softly.

"People forget that." Mr. Pokémon continued, walking over to the table area and sitting down, beckoning Crystal to join him. "You see all these trainers and they just toss out their pokémon, which act like they're just okay with everything changing. All those comics and radio programs, they skip over the fact that pokémon have to be trained to get used to the pokéball…and in the meantime, the people who train them to do that? The handlers? They have to put up with terrified, frightened pokémon. True story."

Crystal took off her backpack and sat down, taking her first drink of the lemonade. "Back at Elm labs, I deal mostly with feral pokémon," She said. "We try to _not_ put them in pokéballs, to make sure they remain as close to feral as possible. Except a few, of course."

"Mmn. When I first came to Johto, Professor Elm showed me around his lab. I liked what I saw."

Crystal paused a moment. "You're not from Johto? Where are you from?"

The teen sputtered a little - he'd been drinking. "Gyaaah," He moaned, which Crystal was beginning to suspect was his catchphrase. "Shouldn't have said that." He said, as he wiped his mouth with his arm. "Nope. Shouldn't of. Dang."

For a second there, Crystal had begun to wonder if Mr. Pokémon was actually not crazy, and was somewhat glad for the reminder. She looked down at her lemonade. "Um," She said. "So…the eggs?"

"Huh? Oh." He went over to his bed, and pulled off some of the sheets. Sitting there, with a hot water bottle next to it, was a whole, intact egg. It was white, with strange markings across its surface - curved triangles and squares in bright colors. It was maybe seven or eight inches tall, and nearly as wide.

"Egg," Mr. Pokémon said simply, pointing at it. Crystal set down her lemonade, and crossed over to it. She was no scientist - but she was certainly fascinated. "Where did you find it?" She asked, holding out a hand to the part of the egg furthest from the hot water bottle. It was warm, she could feel even without touching it.

"Oh, me and Peek, we like to wander the wilds." Mr. Pokémon said. "See the sights. I actually found this just a little ways north of here, on the other side of a river to the north of Violet City. Just…sitting there, between two rocks. Looked like they'd rolled there."

"North of…?" Crystal began, thinking. "There's nothing there but wilderness and pokémon…mean pokémon."

"Yeah, so that's why we went there," Mr. Pokémon said happily. "I didn't pick this name out of a hat! I'm actually pretty good with pokémon. You don't _need_ to fight wild pokémon. Just find out what the pokémon wants."

"What if the pokémon wants to eat you?" Crystal asked, moving to get a look at the egg from a different angle.

"Run and hide." Mr. Pokémon responded smoothly. "Hope it's not a Gyrados or something else that can just destroy the landscape to find you."

Crystal looked at Mr. Pokémon, who smiled and gave a thumbs up. "Yeah, it's obvious advice, but it works." He said. The girl thought a moment, then shrugged, sitting back down after using Mr. Pokémon blankets to wrap the egg back up again.

"What about the other egg?" She asked.

Mr. Pokémon's mood darkened. "Cracked open while I was outside sleeping." He said, his voice taking on a far more serious tone. "When I came inside, the pokémon was dead. I think she was malformed and doomed to die anyway…she didn't look _whole_. I won't give you the details."

Crystal didn't want them, biting her lip instead. "What did you…?" She began.

"Took her outside and buried her," Mr. Pokémon said, walking over to one of the windows in the car-house and pointing. Outside, a single, small wooden board stuck out of the ground, with ancient religious markings carved into it - a grave marker. "Could have probably kept her frozen or something for Professor Elm to study, but that didn't seem right. Y'know?"

Crystal nodded. "I think he'd understand," She said, then looked back to the pokémon egg, mostly buried under blankets. Kitsu and Peek were both up on the bed, the Pikachu perched atop the egg with tail and ears raised high, defensive of the it. Kitsu was walking in circles nearby, keeping a respectful distance and cooing softly.

"He's like that with the egg," Mr. Pokémon said, pointing as Peek. "Defensive. Interesting to see, huh? We're probably the first humans to ever see this kind of behavior with pokémon."

Crystal nodded, as Kitsu seemed to gather up some courage and step towards the egg. Peek growled, but Kitsu took another step forward, tail and ears down in submission. She stopped when she could touch noses with the Pikachu - and proceeded to do so, holding the position.

Peek growled, but didn't do what Crystal expected - shock Kitsu. Crystal suddenly realized that Kitsu _knew_ he wouldn't, because any electrical attack from the Pikachu would almost certainly affect the egg as well. The Eevee had just called Peek's bluff.

Carefully, Kitsu used her paws to move some of the blankets wrapping up the egg aside - Peek glaring at her the whole time - then settled down next to the egg, curling up into a ball with her tail wrapped around its base. Peek remained perched on top a moment longer, then he _huffed_ and settled down on the egg opposite Kitsu, wrapping his own tail around the egg and glaring. Kitsu, on the other hand, seemed haughty and proud of her accomplishment.

Crystal smiled, moving forward slowly and sitting down next to the bed. Kitsu looked at her, then _eev-eev'd_ proudly. The girl reached out and pet Kitsu atop her head. Peek _huffed_ at that as well, then settled back down to go to sleep.

"How am I going to move this?" She asked as she leaned forward. Kitsu seemed to have cheered up immensely in the presence of the egg, cooing happily and _eev-eev-_ing frequently. She rubbed her head against Crystal's face. "I mean, without making the pokémon mad?"

"Peek only stays with it for a few hours a day," Mr. Pokémon responded. "Leaves it alone the rest of the time. I don't know about the Eevee, though. Female, right?" At a nod from Crystal, he continued. "Her maternal instincts might be stronger than Pikachu's paternal ones. Who knows? The only pokémon eggs anyone's ever seen with a live pokémon is Chancy…and those eggs never hatch. God knows how they breed."

Peek's ears perked up, as did Kitsu's. The Pikachu leapt from the egg to the nearest window facing the road, looking out and then squeaking in agitation.

"Hmm?" Mr. Pokémon asked, looking out the window. His face paled.

"Oh no," He said, stepping away from the window. "No, this is the whole reason why I asked Elm to send you or Pine. Why is _he_ here?"

"_He?_" Crystal asked, looking out the window herself. She could see, far down the road, a small dust cloud, kicked up by, of all things, an open-topped car, one of the ones designed for off-road driving.

It looked very familiar to Crystal, and it took only a second for her to realize why: it was the same car that Professor Oak used whenever he visited New Bark Town.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven****: Professor Oak**

Several things happened very quickly, too quickly for Crystal to react to immediately - but Mr. Pokémon moved with practiced speed.

The first thing he did was grab all the blankets on his bed, using them to wrap up and carry the egg. He earned a harsh squeal from Kitsu for that, and the pokémon leapt at him to attack - but he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck as she leapt, walked to the back of his car-house, and opened a trap door with his foot. He stuffed both the blankets and Kitsu in, holding Kitsu down with one hand as he reached into his pocket.

"W…wait!" Crystal shouted, charging down the house-car. "What are you doing to Kitsu?"

"Probably?" He asked as he removed some kind of syringe. He jabbed Kitsu with it and injected her with whatever was inside. "Saving her - and the egg - from _him_."

Kitsu squealed in pain from the syringe and struggled - but her struggles grew less and less within moments, until finally she passed out. Crystal screamed.

"You _killed_ her!" She shouted, leaping at Mr. Pokémon. But the teenager grabbed her by her arm as she attacked him, and looked straight into her eyes. She froze at the glance.

"She's just sedated," He said, very quietly. "It'll wear off in a few hours."

Mr. Pokémon went back to his bed, pulling sheets out from under it and covering it again, messing them up to make them look slept in. He then pointed to one cabinet, as his Pikachu leapt onto his shoulder.

"Pokéball inside of that one," He said, "Grab it and open it."

Crystal paused a moment, then went to the cabinet he indicated and opened it. Inside was a single pokéball, indicator showing a pokémon inside. Crystal pressed the button, and seconds later, standing in front of her was an Umbreon.

"Got lucky with your Eevee," Mr. Pokémon said as he went to the window, and looked out. The car was still several minutes away. "If anyone asks, that Umbreon is…what'd you say her name was?"

"K…Kitsu," Crystal said, staring down at the Umbreon, who'd sat back on her haunches and waited. "What's going on? Why is Professor Oak here?"

"At a guess?" Mr. Pokémon asked. "He's here for the egg, because he found out about it when he visited Elm Labs." He walked forward and grabbed the pokéball still in Crystal's hand, then snatched the other one from her belt. He went to a back window and tossed both outside, as far as he could, before finally closing the trap door he'd opened and covering it with a rug, which he then sprayed with something else from his other pocket.

"W…wait," Crystal said, sitting down. She suddenly had a headache, as the Umbreon continued to stare at her. "No one would have told him that…not if Professor Elm wanted us to keep it secret…"

"Yeah, but none of you could have stopped yourselves from _thinking_ it." Mr. Pokémon responded, still watching out his window. "Professor Oak surrounds himself with psychics. Any question he asks? They're irrelevant. It's the psychics that give him all the information. Hence Kitsu there. Her presence will mean that the psychics have to try harder to get into our minds, if they can at all."

Crystal was hugging herself. The Umbreon - apparently named Kitsu - hopped up onto the table, still staring at her intensely. "Oh God," She said. "He visited New Bark Town when I was a kid…when I looked at his eyes…"

Mr. Pokémon flinched. "Don't do that!" He exclaimed. "Just…just _never_ look Professor Oak in the eye. He's just _wrong_, his whole existence, and somehow people can tell that just by looking at his eyes. Kitsu, sit."

The evolved Eevee looked to her trainer, who pointed at the space next to Crystal. She hopped from the table and sat down next to Crystal, staring at her again as soon as she was comfortable.

"Lie down," Mr. Pokémon continued. Umbreon again obeyed the command, lying across Crystal's lap, looking up occasionally at Crystal.

"Probably because you smell like an Eevee," He said, as Peek climbed down from his shoulder and stared out the window, nose twitching. "Don't worry, Kitsu's been trained as a show-pokémon. She's very docile, barely ever fought. I spent every pallet I had getting her when I came to Johto."

"Her name is Kitsu?" Crystal asked incredulously. She didn't realize the name she'd chosen for her Eevee was _that_ unoriginal…

"Actually, it's Nyx, but for the next hour anyway it's Kitsu." Mr. Pokémon said, then looked out his window just in time to see a car stop in front of his house. The teenager breathed in, then out, and smiled.

"Well, at least I'll get something out of this," He said with resignation, as he walked down his trailer, pulling back the brim of his hat so as much of his face could be seen as possible. He stood opened the door to his car-house.

"Professor Oak!" Mr. Pokémon said, smiling and with forced pleasantness.

There was a long moment of silence. Crystal glanced out the window, and saw that Professor Oak, two of his white-coated aides, and a black-haired, severe-looking man wearing loose, dark clothing, were just beginning to get out of the car they had driven here in. On the face of Oak was an expression Crystal didn't think she'd ever see on it again: surprise.

"Yellow?" She heard him ask.

* * *

Crystal stared intently at her lemonade bottle. It was her second, her first one having been downed far too quickly when Professor Oak had sit across the table from her. This one she had barely touched. Nyx still sat on her lap, eyes closed in a light nap. She stroked her fur, wishing her headache would go away so as to make this situation a _little_ less bad. Peek, meanwhile, was nowhere in sight. He'd scampered as soon as Professor Oak had entered the house-car, hiding somewhere within it. Oak's aides and the other man remained waiting outside.

"…so given that I only managed to get two badges," Mr. Pokémon - Yellow, apparently, was his real name - continued, "I just…quit. I mean, what was the point, right? You had Red, your champion at last. You had Blue, a _second_ champion. I don't think I was ever Victory Army material."

"No," Professor Oak said, and Crystal flinched, though she was pretty sure she managed to hide it. She read the ingredients to the lemonade again. "No, I suppose not. I'll admit that perhaps I was too enthusiastic about Red and Blue's success. Still…how long have you been in Johto?"

Yellow shrugged. "Five years?" He guessed. "I found it after I managed to get the Volcanobadge, _somehow_. I realized how out of my league I was and always had been. So I just started walking west. I remembered that our maps were mostly expanding towards the north and east. So I wanted to see what was in the other direction."

Oak was silent for a long time. "And you never reported it," He said. His voice carried a dangerous tone. Crystal cringed.

Yellow laughed - somehow. "I was looking to disappear, remember?" He asked. "Besides, by the time I learned anything worth knowing about Johto, you'd already found it. I…didn't want to disappoint you more."

"Indeed," Oak said. She glanced up, as far as his neck, and saw him lean back. Professor Oak wasn't drinking any of the water that Yellow had grabbed for him. "So," He said. "Unfortunately, this isn't a social call. Professor Elm told me of your rare find."

"Find?" Yellow asked, feigning confusion.

"Yes, yes," Oak said, leaning forward again. Crystal leaned back instinctively, looking at Oak's face - but not his eyes! Yellow's warning was fresh in her mind. She instead concentrated on his mouth. "What this young girl has come here to acquire."

He looked at her. Crystal grasped Nyx tightly. The pokémon stirred from her nap, looking up at her. Crystal's headache got worse.

"The egg," He said simply. "The one that you found. The one that you're hiding and using that Umbreon to prevent my psychics from finding. I've come to collect it, you see. Elm Labs isn't set up to study a find of this magnitude, but my own lab back in Kanto…"

Yellow blanched, Crystal saw from her periphery. "H…hiding?" He asked.

_How?_ How had Oak known about them hiding the egg…

…the _egg…one_ egg…

"It cracked," Crystal said quickly. She wasn't religious, but she began praying to any god, spirit, or passer-by of any variety that she was gambling correctly. She took in a breath, and met his eye, trying to force her willpower forward.

"The egg cracked," She continued. "Before I got here…the pokémon inside died. Mr. Pokémon…Yellow…buried her out back."

That was it, that was all she could do. She looked away, acting saddened by the news - secretly holding back a scream.

His eyes were _too old_. That was what was wrong with him. Sure, Professor Oak was getting on in years - he seemed sixty or seventy years old. But his eyes spoke of an identity much older than that…and they spoke of a monster dwelling within. Again, all Crystal could envision, as she did so many years before, was one of the horrific Gyrados dragons, somehow compressed into human form.

And she had just lied to him, gambling that she knew Professor Elm well enough to know what he would have said, when he learned that she had left for the egg - as she was certain her mother would have come to him with _issues_ over her choice.

Professor Oak leaned back, letting out a long sigh. "Cracked," He said, sliding from the chair and standing, walking over to the window - and seeing the same small grave that Crystal had.

Yellow looked at Crystal, crossing his arms. With his concealed hand, he gave her a thumbs-up.

"Yeah," Yellow said, and began repeating what he had told Crystal almost word for word. "Cracked open while I was outside sleeping. When I came inside, the pokémon was dead. I think she was malformed and doomed to die anyway…she didn't look _whole_. I won't give you the details.

"So I took her outside and buried her. Could have probably kept her frozen or something for Professor Elm…or you, Professor Oak…to study, but that didn't seem right. Y'know?"

"In fact, I don't," Oak said, crossing his arms behind his back. "Perhaps you're too little a trainer, too much a handler. Those always seemed unbalanced in you, Yellow."

Crystal could hear anger in his voice, but also acceptance. He was a man who _expected_ command and control over all situations, yet was old enough to realize that even he couldn't have everything - though that wouldn't stop him from trying. "I will be taking the find for study, of course."

Yellow began an objection, but Oak turned around and glared at him. The teenager backed down before even fully forming a word. "O-of course," He said, looking down and pulling his hat over his eyes.

Oak glared at him for a few more moments, then looked to Crystal. She stared at his mouth again.

"Crystal Tsubaki, yes?" He asked. Somehow, hearing him say her name made Crystal shudder. She nodded, again holding onto the Umbreon for strength.

"Professor Elm speaks quite highly of you," He said, then chuckled, looking to the pokémon on her lap. "But not highly enough. Your Eevee has evolved already?"

Crystal nodded, not daring to try and speak another lie.

"Impressive. You must be skilled at directing her in battles. Have you ever considered taking Johto's Gym Challenge?"

"N…no," Crystal said, honestly. "I mean, my friends, Gold Rush and Silver Caliber, left a year ago, but that's kept me so busy at Elm Labs-"

"Gold and Silver?" Oak interrupted, looking up in thought. Crystal used the moment to exhale and inhale sharply, though silently. "Gold and Silver…I think I know those two boys. With a Typhlosion and a Feraligatr, respectively, yes?"

Crystal bit her lip. "W…well, when they left, they just had a Cyndaquil and a Totodile, but…"

"Yes, they're both in Kanto, now." Oak continued. "Kanto has its own series of gyms, you may have noticed myself and Yellow talking about them just now…making quite a name for themselves, I might add. In fact, I've been considering commissioning them as officers in the Victory Army, so that I could keep a close eye on their amazing progress."

Crystal sensed that Oak was saying something else here, but she couldn't make it out beneath the innuendo and subterfuge.

"Yes, it seems they're following in the footsteps of Red," Oak resumed, as he walked over to Yellow's fridge, inspecting some of the magnets and paraphernalia he had hanging there. "You may have heard of Red. A very skilled trainer, looks much like Yellow here - from Pallet Town as well, I might add!"

Crystal thought. She vaguely recalled, in her childhood…

"I…I think a trainer named Red passed through New Bark Town, when I was very young," She said. "But I don't remember him very well…"

Oak stiffened, and Crystal wondered what she had said to make him do that. "Well," He said, "Red was a protégé of mine, my greatest success. The second person to gain a badge from all eight gyms in Kanto _and_ defeat the Elite Four and reigning Champion. The first was my grandson, Blue, but Red defeated Blue within hours of Blue's victory, claiming the title of Champion for himself."

"Where's Red now?" Yellow asked. "I've always wanted to…meet…" Oak looked at him coldly, informing the teen with a stare that he was _no longer_ a part of the conversation.

"S-sounds impressive," Crystal said, looking down at Nyx, who continued to stare at her intently. "I'd like to meet him."

"Yes," Oak said off-handedly, turning fully around and walking back to the table, though not sitting. He reached into his coat, and produced a piece of paper from an inside pocket. "Well, Crystal. I'm sure that you'd like to continue the proud tradition of Gold and Silver, and from everything I've learned about you, I think you were _born_ for this sort of challenge." He offered Crystal the piece of paper.

It might as well have been made of poison, the way Crystal took it, but Oak didn't seem troubled at all as Crystal looked it over once it was in her hand.

_By the authority of the President of Johto and the Pokémon League of Johto, Crystal Tsubaki is hereby granted the status of Advanced Pokémon Trainer, and is to be afforded all the rights and privileges that status grants._

_Signed,_

_Claymore Oak, Professor_

_Lance Redwood, Elite Four_

_Laurel__ Turin, President of Johto_

"Just add that to your identification book for now," Oak said. "By the time you get back to New Bark Town, a new ID book will be waiting for you, along with complete pokémon trainer gear."

Crystal stared. "But…but I haven't taken the test, and…"

Oak waved off her objections. "I heard about the trouble you had in Cherrygrove the other day," He said. "I'm not certain I agree with _some_ trainers about not keeping pokémon in pokéballs," Crystal could almost hear him add _where they belong_, though he didn't say it, "But clearly, with an Umbreon under your command, you know what you're doing and deserve this. Someone of your talents shouldn't be a mere _handler_."

Crystal held the small document in her hands. With this, Kitsu - the real one, the one that was sedated within the trap door - wouldn't ever need to be in a pokéball again, no matter where Crystal went. Even still, it was from Oak - she didn't want it. But how would she…

"Well, I think I'm done here," Oak said, walking towards the door. "I'll have one of my aides remove the find from your backyard, Yellow, and be on my way. Oh…" he stopped at the door, looking down the length of the house-car. "And Yellow…try not to disappear again."

"Of…of course," Yellow said, nodding, then forcing a smile. "Where would I disappear to, anyway? There's nowhere else to go."

"Indeed." Oak noted, and stepped from the car.

Yellow stood slowly, looking out the window as Oak spoke to one of his aides. The man went around the back of Yellow's house, with Yellow watching him approach the small grave. The aide released a Sandshrew from a pokéball at his belt, and ordered it to dig up the grave. Within seconds, the Sandshrew had found a small wooden box, which the aide took from the ground, and opened up. Crystal couldn't see - was glad she couldn't see - what was in the box, but the aide seemed satisfied as he came around to the front of the car and presented the box to Professor Oak.

"Right now he sees a pokémon that never got a chance to live," Yellow said quietly. "Hopefully that'll satisfy him."

It must have, because the four men climbed back into their car, and drove off. They'd only just reached the bottom of the hill that Yellow's house-car was on - all of a fifteen second drive - when Crystal's willpower finally broke, as did the dams holding back her tears.

* * *

"You seem unhappy, Koga," Oak remarked to the severe-looking man sitting next to him in the back of the car.

Koga didn't look to his leader, keeping his eyes on the road in front of them. "I am, Professor."

"Why?"

Koga paused, gathering his thoughts. "We should have brought Sabrina, the only psychic in the world strong enough to pierce the veils of Dark-type pokémon, which we knew this 'Mr. Pokémon' would almost certainly have. Failing that, we should have ordered Crystal to stow the Umbreon so that your aides could pierce their minds. We also should have taken Yellow with us and dealt with his betrayal. And I do not understand why you have turned Crystal from a mere handler into an advanced trainer, if what you suspect about her is true."

"Hmm," Oak responded. He normally hated having his orders or motives questioned, but Koga was the exception - that was one of Koga's duties, as Oak himself had defined them. "To meet each of your points: I do not wish to trapeze across this backwater region with _two members_ of the Elite Four, it would make me look weak. Crystal and Yellow were both far too terrified to tell any actual lies, I _am_ quite adept as sorting through them even without psychic help. Yellow is worthless, I don't care if he rots in his salvaged home of debris. And I gave Crystal her new status precisely _because_ of what I suspect. This way, I can keep an eye on her, the same way I'm keeping an eye on Gold and Silver."

Koga bowed his head. "If I may," He said, "My ancestor once said that the individual stones of a wall may be strong, but that wall can still be constructed poorly. Similarly, no one point you raise is incorrect or wrong, but I fear that together, they…"

"Will what?" Oak asked. Not threateningly - he was in fact amused by Koga's caution. "What can a twelve-year-old girl and a failed clone possibly of hidden from us?"

Koga bowed his head. "I do not know. But I am ninja, and your chief of intelligence. What I do not know could kill me."

Oak still smiled as he crossed his arms. "Perhaps. But not today. This was a weekend excursion, a minor trip to pick up a trinket of interest." He shrugged. "We have our prize. Now we can leave this worthless fringe and return to actual civilization."

Koga bowed his head again. "As you will, Professor Oak."

6


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight: ****Rival**

Crystal didn't know exactly why she had begun crying, why her will suddenly broke as it had. It upset the Umbreon on her lap, who got out from underneath her as she buried her head in her arms, lying on the table.

Yellow took off his hat, throwing it on his bed and running his hands through his hair. "Oh man," He moaned. "Oh man, he _knows_ I'm here."

Nyx leapt up onto the bed, settling down, as Peek emerged from his hiding spot and climbed up to atop Yellow's head. Crystal leaned back, hugging herself tightly and feeling the same violation she felt every time Oak was around. He just gave off this aura of _wrongness_…

The girl stood, dashing down to the end of the car-house and pulling open the trapdoor. Inside, the egg was safe, untouched, and Kitsu lay on her side, breathing slow and steady, unaware of the events transpiring around her. The girl lifted her pokémon out gently, holding her to her chest as she curled up into a ball in a corner. Peek dashed down to the end of the house as well, climbing into the hidden compartment and checking the egg.

For a long, long time, Crystal wasn't aware, _refused_ to be aware, of anything but herself and Kitsu. She didn't know how long, exactly, but eventually she felt something licking her cheek. She snapped back to reality, and saw Kitsu, leaned up against her, forepaws on her chest. The Eevee kept licking her cheek. She wondered how long Kitsu had been awake.

"Kitsu…" Crystal breathed, grasping and hugging the Eevee tightly. She seemed to not mind it, even though the position was awkward for the pokémon. Eventually, Crystal let go and looked around. It was dark out, and the interior of the house-car was lit up electrically. Crystal raised an eyebrow, wondering where the electricity came from.

"Solar panels on the roof," Yellow said, at a look from Crystal. He was standing in the 'kitchen' part of the house-car, watching an electric oven. Perched atop his head was his Pikachu. "Plus an occasional energy boost from Peek. Glad to have you back."

Crystal nodded, standing on shaking legs and carrying Kitsu with her. The pokémon still seemed a little sleepy, settling down on Crystal's lap when Crystal sat down in on chair. On Yellow's bed, Nyx still lay, watching Kitsu. In the darkened light, the yellow circles across the Umbreon's fur seemed to glow slightly.

"How long was I…?" Crystal asked Yellow.

"Hours." Yellow said. "Six or seven, at least. You must be hungry."

The girl suddenly realized she was in fact _starving_. She nodded eagerly. "I have my own food if you want…"

Yellow waved her off. "Wouldn't be much of a host if I wasn't preparing food for five. Well, two humans and three pokémon."

Crystal looked down at Kitsu. Though drowsy, the pokémon was still awake, licking her paws and tail swishing around gently. "I'm…I'm sorry that I just…freaked out like that…"

Yellow shook his head, Pikachu keeping easy balance atop it somehow. "Seen it before. _Anyone_ who suddenly has to deal with Professor Oak can end up like that. 'Specially since you didn't follow my advice on looking him in the eyes."

Crystal flinched. "I…I think it helped sell my lie, though…"

"It was better than anything _I_ thought up, especially since you never technically lied." Yellow said, as the oven _dinged_. He opened it up and used a glove to remove a pot filled with something that all five beings in the room thought smelled delicious. "I wish Oak hadn't just taken her body like that…but I guess she's helping her sibling like this from beyond the grave. I'm sure that's what she'd want to do."

Crystal smiled at the sentimental thought, as Yellow grabbed a quintet of bowls and poured out whatever was in the pot. Crystal tried to identify the prominent smells.

"Oddish?" She asked.

"Among other things," He responded as he poured out the last bowl. "Miltank beef for one. Kind of a home-made recipe. Trust me, you'll love it."

Crystal stared into the bowl he presented her with, a stew of meat and various leaves, mostly from Oddishes but also featuring some from other pokémon and more mundane plants. Yellow handed out enough for all five of them, putting the pokémon's on the floor and providing sporks for both himself and Crystal.

They ate largely in silence at first, their only sound being the crunching of some leaves or the pokémon's slurping. Crystal eventually broke the silence.

"What's Kanto like?" She asked.

Yellow paused a moment with full spork in hand, making a face. "Very different from Johto," He said, swallowing the food on his spork before elaborating. "I think something like three-fourths of everyone in Kanto lives in the middle cities - Lavender town, Celadon, Fuchsia, and especially Saffron. They're the parts that are most like their Johto counterparts, but everyone there is…_scared_, I guess you could say."

"Scared?" Crystal asked.

"Like they're terrified a Gyrados could attack at any moment," Yellow said.

Crystal thought. "I'm pretty scared of that…I mean, they do tend to appear out of nowhere…"

Yellow shook his head. "No, I don't think you get it. Yes, you're worried about Gyrados - now that I've mentioned them. In Kanto? They're _always_ terrified of Gyrados, and Charizard, and Rhyhorns, and anything else. The fear that pokémon could attack at any second and kill them all is just _there_, constantly. In Johto, you've learned to set that aside when you have no reason for it."

"Well," Crystal said, playing devil's advocate, "Pokémon here _are_ weaker, I hear."

"They are," Yellow said. "I bet that's a big part of it. But it's as much just a part of their culture. They've always been terrified of pokémon, always been at war with them. In Johto, you just try and live your lives."

He ate a few bites of his stew, then continued. "But like I said, that's just the middle cities. The ones on the frontier are just flat out military strongholds. Some, like Pewter or Vermillion, more so than others, but you just can't escape that fact. Then there's the Indigo Plateau and the battlefields beyond. I've _seen_ them. It isn't pretty. Here's some free advice: Don't ever go to Kanto."

* * *

The conversation turned to lighter subjects after that, mostly on how Kitsu seemed dead-set on annoying Nyx by trying to catch the Dark-type pokémon's tail, and how the Umbreon was mostly taking it in stride. Peek remained close to the egg after eating, and the two other pokémon themselves mostly stayed near it while Crystal and Yellow talked about other things. Eventually, they all turned in, Yellow insisting that Crystal take the bed while he slept in one of the chairs.

Somehow, she avoided having any nightmares about Oak while she slept, and woke up the next day to the sound of things being stuffed into bags.

Crystal moaned a little. She'd been facing a window - damn bright sunlight was flowing in - but she turned around, wondering what the noise was. As it turned out, it was Yellow, packing things into a backpack and duffle bag.

"…huh?" Crystal asked.

Yellow looked in her direction, and smiled. "Good morning," He said brightly - _way_ to brightly for this early in the morning, Crystal thought. So, apparently, did his Pikachu, which was sitting atop his head as seemed to be normal for him, but looked about ready to pass out at any moment.

"What _time_ is it?" She asked.

"About seven." Yellow said, pausing in his packing and looking out another window. "I want to get out of here as soon as I can."

Crystal rubbed her eyes, sitting up. She looked around, and saw Kitsu on top of the table, sitting next to a duffle bag and staring it. Nyx was curled up under the table, asleep.

"What are you doing?" Crystal asked.

"Packing," Yellow responded, as he opened up a cabinet and started loading in portable foodstuffs. "I want to head out early."

"…early?" Crystal asked as she slid from his bed, shaking her head to wake up. "Where are you going?"

Yellow paused, considering. "West," He decided, nodding, as though this was the first time he'd given it thought.

"To Violet City?" Crystal guessed.

"Well, that direction," Yellow said. "Then I think I'll head south."

Crystal tried to place where he was going in her mind. "There's nothing there," She said at length.

"That's not true," Yellow pointed out. "There's trees, and pokémon. And there's a beach and the ocean, if I decide to head far enough south."

Crystal stared, blinking. "So you're disappearing on Oak," She realized. "Running away again."

"Hey," Yellow objected, staring at her. "I am _not_ sticking around for when the Professor decides that I _should_ be punished for disappearing, even if I _was_ useless for him." He zipped up the backpack he had been packing.

Crystal sighed. She could tell that trying to convince Yellow to stay would be entirely pointless. "I'll tell Professor Elm, then?" She asked with resignation.

"Would you? I don't think I'll be near a phone anytime soon." Yellow said, then walked over to the duffle bag on the table and placed a hand atop it. "The egg's in there, along with all my spare sheets. Should be nice and protected."

Crystal stared at it a moment, then nodded. "Thanks," She said.

Yellow gave her a thumbs-up. "Light breakfast, then we'll go our separate ways," He said, heading back over to the kitchenette.

Crystal nodded, then snapped her fingers as she remembered something. "By the way," She began, "There's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"Hmm?" Yellow asked, as he began rifling through what was left of his food for something for them to eat. "What is it?"

"Mr. _Pokémon?_" Crystal asked, incredulously.

Yellow paused, then laughed, shaking his head. "Crystal, there was a point in my life where people thought I was going to lead the Victory Army." He informed her, looking over to her. "Would _you_ think someone like that would change their name to that?"

Crystal shook her head. "No I wouldn't," she responded. She had figured that it had to be something like that, but she still wanted to make sure. "Then again, I don't think I'd expect you to be in Johto, either."

Yellow smiled. "I'm full of surprises."

* * *

Kitsu sat atop Crystal's shoulder again as she headed out from Mr. Pokémon's car-house, waving goodbye. She knew that he'd be gone within the hour himself, heading into the wilderness to run away again from Professor…

_"No,"_ Crystal said firmly, in the same tone of voice she'd command a trained pokémon with. No, she was _not_ going to think or linger on Professor Oak. She reached up to Kitsu and petted the Eevee in a very determined way, looking at her. Kitsu herself was looking down, keeping an eye on the duffle back she knew contained the precious pokémon egg.

"It's safe," Crystal assured her partner, holding up the bag and unzipping it so Kitsu could see inside. The egg sat intact, wrapped in half a dozen blankets to protect it.

I'm going to be a big sister! Kitsu exclaimed - or simply _eev-eev'_d happily at the sight of the egg for some instinctive reason. She licked Crystal's cheek as the girl zipped the duffle bag back up.

The walk back to Cherrygrove was smooth, at least, if constantly interrupted. Several small bug-types tried to challenge Crystal or block her path, but each time Kitsu simply leapt from her shoulder and would quickly toss them aside - sometimes simply by growling at them, as she was much larger and scarier, other times grabbing them with her mouth and actually throwing them away.

After each battle, Kitsu would dash back to Crystal and sniff at the duffle bag, circling it and _eev-eev-_ing until Crystal opened the bag and showed her that the egg was fine. She'd coo happily at that sight. For whatever reason though, the bugs were more aggressive today, so after the third fight with one in fifteen minutes, Crystal stopped picking Kitsu back up and putting her on her shoulder. The Eevee didn't seem to mind, staying close to whatever hand Crystal carried the duffle bag with.

Big sister big sister big sister! Kitsu seemed to exclaim with her hops and jumps around Crystal as they neared the guard towers for Cherrygrove. Crystal paused when they were in sight, reaching down to her passbook and seeing a piece of paper stuck in there. What was…

She opened the paper, read it, and felt like a slight moron for forgetting so soon her rapid promotion to advanced trainer status. She tried to ignore Professor Oak's name emblazoned on the paper, and instead focused upon the words _Advanced Pokémon Trainer_. She looked to Kitsu happily.

"Guess what?" She asked as she walked to the guard tower, waving at them when she was near enough. "No pokéball!"

Kitsu _eev-eev'd_ as though actually understanding Crystal. When the guard neared, the Eevee calmed down slightly, but only long enough to sniff at the guard's ankles before proceeding to prance around again.

"What's got it so excited?" The guard asked, one Crystal didn't recognize from her previous two encounters.

Crystal shrugged, handing forth her passbook and temporary advanced trainer license. "I think she realizes she won't be needing a pokéball anymore," Crystal lied. But only a white lie - if Kitsu had been able to understand Crystal, she was sure she would have reacted the way she was now.

The guard looked over her passbook, then the sheet of signed paper. "You went from handler to advanced trainer in one day." He said, his voice monotone.

Crystal shrugged. "Yes," She replied simply.

The guard looked at her, then the paper again. "Wait here a moment while we verify," He said, heading back into the guard tower.

Crystal felt a little trepidation at that, but only a slight amount, and when the guard came back out five minutes later, he was shaking his head and returned the pass and temporary license to Crystal.

"Alright, your name has been registered, apparently." He said, still seeming to not believe his eyes but not willing to try and investigate any further. He began reading from a script the way Officer Mulligan had when Crystal first entered Cherrygrove City.

"By Cherrygrove City code and as an advanced trainer, you are allowed access to Cherrygrove City with a maximum of six of pokémon. Five of these pokémon must be kept in a container of some kind while within city limits, excluding within the bounds of Cherrygrove Pokémon Center or other designated area. One of these may be removed from its pokéball and accompany you through the city, provided it is deemed to be no threat to the people of Cherrygrove City and is on our approved list." He looked to Crystal. "Eevees are on that list, incidentally, but Flareons and Jolteons aren't. Just a heads-up."

He resumed reading. "You are not to partake in any pokémon battle while within city limits. You may not have more than six pokémon on your person while within Cherrygrove City limits. As an Advanced Pokémon Trainer, you are allowed full passage through Cherrygrove City and to all other cities. Do you understand the terms of entrance, and will you comply with them?"

Crystal nodded, reaching down and picking up Kitsu, helping the pokémon onto her shoulder again. "I do," She said.

"Then welcome to Cherrygrove City," The guard said, offering a formal bow. Crystal returned it as best she could with an Eevee on her shoulder, then entered the city.

Somehow, it seemed…_better_, this time. Rather than rushing through it, trying to get to the pokémon center or out of the city, she was taking her time, looking around and seeing the sights on her way through. Cherrygrove might not have been everything Crystal was expecting from a city, but on walking through it she now saw why it deserved to be a _city_ and not a _town_. People were moving, doing things, trying to go somewhere or do something. Bicycles and bicyclists were everywhere. Walking through the main street, Crystal saw vendors in dozens of stalls trying to sell hundreds of things to the hundreds of people making their way through the city. In New Bark Town, there was always this lazy feeling, this sense that whatever you did could wait until tomorrow. That was lacking in Cherrygrove City, and it made the place feel more…_alive_.

More than a few people stared at the Eevee perched on her shoulder. Kitsu stared back. She hugged Crystal tightly with her tail, but the girl produced a pokémon treat every now and then to calm the Eevee down. Within just a few minutes of walking through the city, the Eevee seemed as calm as she might have been in the wilderness - alert, ready to react to danger, but otherwise at ease and curious, taking in all the new sights and smells.

Crossing from one side of the busy morning city to the other took the better part of an hour, and as she left the bounds of the city, heading out on the road home - crossing through the eastern towers without much incident - she was feeling a definite sense of contentedness, and closure. A small part of her wanted to stay a little longer, and explore Cherrygrove - but this close to the end of her trip, she ignored that part. Three easy days back to New Bark Town, and her little adventure would be over and done with.

Later, in hindsight, Crystal supposed she was stupid for thinking that it'd be that simple. Nothing about this had been easy or simple, and when, about seven hours from Cherrygrove City, she noticed a red-haired kid on a bicycle sitting atop a hill, arms crossed and glaring down at her. Her good mood vanished.

Crystal paused in walking, looking at him as he glared back. The kid was a little taller than her, but didn't look any older. His hair was long, for a boy's, and red, a bright and vibrant red usually possible only with hair dye, but somehow Crystal sensed that his hair was naturally that color the same as Crystal's was inexplicably teal. Some people in the world just had random colorations like that.

The kid dressed in a black jacket, dark blue pants, and black sneakers. A single pokéball was clipped to his belt, but when Crystal took a step forward, he removed the ball from his belt.

Kitsu's fur was standing on end. Whoever this kid was, she didn't like him.

"You just walked out of Cherrygrove City with a pokémon on your shoulder," The kid said from atop the hill, tossing his pokéball up and down. "Which means you were _inside_ the city with it on your shoulder…which means you're an advanced trainer."

Crystal blinked. The kid's voice was…exactly what she had expected. A little haughty, a little prideful, full of spite and _stereotypically_ 'bad.' She'd head radio programs with more convincing voice actors. It didn't help that, as he seemed to be about twelve, his voice cracked slightly with everything he said. And how had he known about her leaving the city?

"I could also just have the license," Crystal put forward, holding the duffle back in both hands. "You _can_ just buy it."

The kid leaned forward, staring into Crystal's blue eyes. His own were dark brown. Crystal got the sense that he was trying to somehow see into her, sense her motives.

The girl shook her head. "Look," She said, planting her hands on her hips and glaring at the kid. "I've had a long week. I just want to go home."

The kid smirked. "No. You're a trainer, which means that out in the wilderness, if I challenge you, you _have_ to accept. That's Pokémon League rules."

"Or forfeit," Crystal said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her wallet. "I can forfeit the match." She looked through he wallet. "I bet a thousand pallets that I'll win. Oh, look, you beat me. Darn, you win." She held out the money. This was essentially highway robbery, but she just wanted to go home. If she had to bribe her way past, she would.

The kid blanched, and his eyes narrowed. "No way," He said. "No way someone as weak as you is an advanced trainer. Probably got it by accident."

"Or I bought the license," Crystal reminded him. Neither were technically true, but Crystal didn't feel bad about lying to him.

"Either way, you're weak," The kid said, sitting back on his bike and thumbing the activator switch on his pokéball. "And I hate weakness!" He called out, holding it forward.

Crystal bit her lip. She really didn't want to fight, just wanted to go home, make Professor Elm happy, get chewed out by her mom, and basically conclude her little…

Tyrogue emerged from the pokéball - the one from Elm Labs, the one that Professor Elm had wanted to give to Crystal. The pokémon that had been stolen and doomed to a life of gladiatorial combat…by _this kid_.

Kitsu leapt from Crystal's shoulder, as the girl suddenly became very interested in the battle.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine: ****The Road Home**

"Tyrogue!" Crystal called. The small fighting-type glared at Crystal, hands raised in a ready combat position…for all of five seconds. Then he _huffed_, crossing his arms and standing up straight.

Crystal put down the duffle bag, then got down onto one knee, moving Kitsu next to her with one hand and holding out her other. "Tyrogue," Crystal called again. "Come on, come here…"

"What the Hell are you doing?" The kid asked, getting off of his bike. "Tyrogue, _stay!_"

Crystal glared at the red-headed kid. "He's not yours!" Crystal exclaimed. "That Tyrogue belongs to Elm Labs!"

Tyrogue still has his arms crossed, but looked slightly confused, glancing between Crystal and the red-head. Crystal couldn't see any wounds or bruises on him, but pokémon healed fast, so that didn't mean he hadn't been mistreated over the past few days. Somehow, though, she'd expected more from the kid who'd stolen Tyrogue. More…authenticity. This kid looked and sounded more like a villain from a game then an actual criminal.

The red-head had come up short at Crystal's exclamation, and glared at her. "You can't prove that," he declared, but his voice was unsure.

Crystal shook her head, ignoring him as Kitsu licked at her paw, settling down onto her haunches and waiting to see what Crystal was trying to actually accomplish.

"Tyrogue," Crystal said, hand going back into her pocket and grabbing out two of Kitsu's treats. She handed one to the Eevee, to keep her placated, but the other one she held out. Tyrogue's eyes widened slightly at the sight, recognizing them.

_Quickest way to a pokémon's heart,_ Crystal thought. Perhaps it wasn't the most honest way to win back Tyrogue, but it was the surest.

The kid grunted as he reached the bottom of the hill, reaching into his pocket and throwing something into the space between him and Tyrogue - a treat of his own, one that Tyrogue reacted to by loping over and gobbling it up.

Crystal sighed, throwing her own treat at Tyrogue, wondering if this was going to be a battle of pokémon treats - but that was a mistake. He certainly seemed enamored by it, but so did Kitsu, who wriggled out from underneath Crystal's hands and dashed forward, leaping up in the air to catch it, swallowing the treat before she had even touched down, a bare three feet from Tyrogue.

Tyrogue's eyes narrowed at the Eevee's sudden charge, and he ran to Kitsu, skidding the last few inches on his back and elbows and delivering a pair of kicks to the Eevee's face. Kitsu stumbled away from the blow, rolling a few times before righting herself. The normal-type shook her head, clearing it, then growled low, ears folded back against her skull and tail straight out behind her.

Tyrogue adopted his own fighting stance - facing Kitsu sideways, one foot forward, arm closer to Kitsu facing down towards the ground and arm facing away held up. Tyrogue _huffed_.

"Tyrogue, _no,_" Crystal said, in her _I'm your handler_ tone of voice. Tyrogue paused, uncertain, while Kitsu growled, beginning to pace a wide circle around the fighting-type. He shook his head after a moment, as though clearing it, and took a determined step towards Kitsu. The Eevee hopped back. Her fur made her look much larger than Tyrogue, but in reality they probably weighed about the same, and Kitsu was just a normal-type, probably the least dangerous of the pokémon types, while Tyrogue was a fighting-type - built for combat by whatever force had created pokémon in the first place.

Crystal bit her lip, glaring at the kid. "Why?" She demanded. "Why'd you take Tyrogue?"

The kid didn't answer her. "Tyrogue, _attack!_"

The Tyrogue complied with a _hoi_ sound, leaping at Kitsu with a falling punch. The Eevee fell back, but had to keep moving backwards as Tyrogue began a series of punches and kicks that was going to end badly for Kitsu.

"_No!_" Crystal said, again in her handler voice, trying to stop the combat. Tyrogue faltered a moment - and Kitsu used the opportunity to leap in, swiping a paw at Tyrogue's face. She drew four sharp, red lines across his cheek, then pushed forward and drove her head into Tyrogue's chest, tossing him back several feet. The pokémon rose quickly, and shot Crystal a betrayed look.

"Ha!" The kid cried, as Kitsu began circling Tyrogue again, still growling and now more sure of herself. When Tyrogue took a step towards Kitsu, she didn't flinch or back away this time, and again Tyrogue glared at Crystal. "I don't know who you are, but I think you just handed Tyrogue over to me. No way he'll trust you now. Good thing, too, I spent way too long trying to get him to obey me."

Crystal glared at him, then back at Tyrogue. "Kitsu," she said firmly. The Eevee paused a moment, ears perked up but never taking her eyes from Tyrogue. "_Stay_."

Early in her career as a handler, Crystal had learned a lot about dealing with pokémon. One of the things it she learned was that the _intent_ and the _intensity_ of whatever you said were often more important than whether or not the pokémon actually understood you. Pokémon were smart - not nearly as smart as humans, but they could figure things out. Even though Crystal had never actually made any commands of the Eevee like this, Kitsu obeyed - unhappily, but she still did, by understanding Crystal's intent based on tone of voice.

"Stay," Crystal repeated for good measure, then looked to Tyrogue and pointed at him. "You too. _Stay_."

Tyrogue glared at her, and the red-headed kid smiled. "Tyrogue, _attack!_ Kick this Eevee's butt."

If she'd been on the outside, looking into this fight, Crystal would have made a face at the kid's usage of _butt_ rather than some stronger language that seemed more appropriate. Instead, she ignored it, as Tyrogue dashed forward with a leaping kick. Kitsu got under the kick, however, and when Tyrogue came down close enough grabbed the fighting-type's leg with her teeth. Tyrogue howled in pain as she spun around a few times, then threw the him. The fighting-type twisted to land in a skid easily enough, but when he came down on his wounded leg he grunted in pain. He stood unevenly.

"What the heck?" The kid demanded of Tyrogue as the pokémon limped forward. "You're supposed to be strong!"

Kitsu wasn't giving Tyrogue much time to recover as she ran forward. Tyrogue caught her face with one of his hands, using her own momentum to toss her over his shoulder and slam her into the ground, then deliver a solid punch to her face. But the move had required the use of his bad leg, and his knee buckled even as he hit the Eevee.

Kitsu fell back, growling and panting, as Tyrogue's chest rose and fell quickly as well. The two glared at each other, unsure of which was going to get stupid or cocky and attack first.

"Tyrogue!" The kid exclaimed. "What are you _waiting_ for?"

Tyrogue closed his eyes, focusing himself, gathering his strength. Kitsu backed up a step, then two, worried about what was coming. When Tyrogue opened his eyes again, he looked at Kitsu with dangerous intent, and pushed off with his good leg, fists raised high…

…Kitsu spun around and used her back paws to kick sand in his face mid leap, then dove to the side. Tyrogue let out a cry and stumbled on his landing, rolling. He might have recovered quickly, but Kitsu was there in a flash, biting onto one arm, pushing her paws against his chest, and _pulling_. Crystal heard a wet _pop_. Tyrogue howled in pain and kicked Kitsu off, delivering a pair of chops with his good hand as he did. Kitsu fell back, momentarily stunned.

Tyrogue was a lot worse off than that. He stood, barely, able to put some weight on his wounded leg but not much. His right arm was fine, but his left was covered in bloody teeth marks and hung loosely at his side, strangely bent at the shoulder - dislocated. That was the last Crystal saw of him, as red light swallowed him up moment's later. Kitsu's fur stood on end at the sight, and she dashed over to Crystal, hiding behind her legs and growling.

Crystal's attention was focused on the kid, who had run back up the hill and grabbed his bike, pokéball at his belt.

"Oh _no_ you don't!" Crystal cried, dashing after him and grabbing him by his jacket as he tried to speed away. His bike kept going on its own for a second as she yanked him off of it, then fell.

The kid struggled incoherently for a moment, then paused a second, gathering his senses as Tyrogue had. It worked better for him, though, when he kneed Crystal in the stomach, _hard_, then punched her in the side of her face. He didn't have a lot of power to put behind his blow, but Crystal saw stars when his blow connected regardless. Her grip on him failed, and he got away from her.

Crystal stumbled, falling onto her rear and blinking stars from her eyes. Kitsu remained close to her, growling bloody murder at the kid but afraid to get too close to him and his dreaded pokéball, not understanding that it couldn't catch her with Tyrogue already keyed to it.

"You win this round," the kid said as he picked up his bike. "But you only won because Tyrogue was _weak_. You manipulated the fact that you knew him. Next time you won't be so lucky."

Crystal shook her head, putting a hand to her mouth. "Who _are_ you?" She demanded as she stood up. "Some kind of Saturday-morning radio villain?"

"I'm not going to tell you my _real name_," the kid said incredulously. "But you can call me…Crimson. And I'm going to be the most powerful pokémon trainer in the world. I'm going to beat Red!"

With that, the kid was off, long red hair flowing as he biked away at high speed.

Crystal glowered at him, and considered giving chase. He _had Tyrogue_. She took a step, then noticed something on the ground, something she'd forgotten about - the duffle bag with the egg in it. Kitsu hadn't forgotten it in the slightest, already by its side and sniffing at it, desperately pawing at the bag as though trying to get inside. Crystal moved over to it and unzipped it for the Eevee's benefit, knowing the egg would be fine. Kitsu practically leapt into the pocket, sniffing and rubbing against the egg, ignoring her own wounds. At length, she looked to Crystal and _eev-eev'd_, probably trying to tell her that the egg was unharmed.

Crystal sighed, getting down onto her knees and petting Kitsu gently under her chin, wanting to avoid any of the bruises and welts that the pokémon surely had. The Eevee flopped down inside of the duffle bag next to the egg, breathing heavily. She was _exhausted_, this fight with Tyrogue having actually winded her and tested her limits, unlike any of the other fights she'd had with pokémon. Even the Pidgey, which had given her a nasty scratch across her head - a scratch that was now fully healed, though Crystal still had a mark on her cheek from her own close encounter - had been more annoying then challenging.

Crystal shook her head. The kid would get to Cherrygrove city a on his bike lot faster than she could on foot. Tyrogue was wounded, but he only really needed the pokémon center to set Tyrogue's dislocated shoulder - every other wound could be healed with time, and that was assuming that the kid didn't know how to set bones himself the way Crystal did. By the time Crystal could hike back to Cherrygrove, it would be past midnight, and the kid would be gone, Crystal was sure of it.

Tyrogue…

Crystal felt a tear in her eye - then more. She finally worked through the reality of the situation - she'd seen Tyrogue again, and he was in the hands of…well, not the monster that Crystal had worked up his kidnapper to be. But he was _not_ with her. And Crystal's attempts to get Tyrogue to stop fighting, to listen to her, had only pushed him from her when Kitsu - not understanding the situation - had used his distraction to attack him.

Crystal shook her head, banishing her tears and wiping her eyes with her sleeve, looking towards the sun. It was still several hours before sunset, but Crystal had suddenly lost the desire to walk much further for the day. She stood and picked up the duffle bag in both hands, trudging off the road and towards the river she had camped by so often on her way to Cherrygrove, and setting up her camp.

* * *

Days later, Crystal passed through New Bark Town's guard towers, but she wasn't smiling, the way she had thought she would be when she returned home. She wasn't very friendly with the guards, though neither was she short or ill-tempered - she simply got her ID book out and answered yes or no to their questions. She wasn't really in the mood, and didn't know the guards well enough to try and make conversation anyway.

Kitsu had recovered with a night's rest, of course, and trotted alongside Crystal, near the duffle bag as Crystal wound her way across the packed dirt roads of New Bark Town, the late night lit only by the lights from the occasional insomniac's house or, as she approached nearer to Elm Labs, actual streetlamps. As she knew would be the case, there were still people in the lab - a few night-shift guards, an aide feeding the pokémon, and in his office, Professor Elm.

Elm looked up from whatever he was writing at his desk when Crystal came in, and nearly leapt from his skin in surprise.

"Crystal!" He exclaimed, getting up from his desk. "You're back!"

Crystal just nodded, and offered a smile. It was a little weak, but authentic. Mostly, she just felt _tired_, but behind the exhaustion was a sense of finality.

"Yeah," she said softly, and embraced him with one arm while he used two, and considerably tighter than the twelve-year-old could hug back. _That_, somehow, seemed to return some energy to Crystal.

The Professor backed off after holding the hug, sitting back on one of the two chairs opposite his desk, normally only for visitors. "Have you seen your mother yet?" He asked.

Crystal shook her head, then grinned again. "It's okay," She said as she set the duffle bag on his desk. "You can skip right to the important question if you want."

Elm stared at her. "Alright, then. Just how _stupid_ are you?"

Crystal blanched, looking at Elm. "I was kind of expecting a different question…"

Elm sighed, as Kitsu sniffed at his pants, then _eev-eev'd_ when she recognized the scent fully and rubbed against his legs. "Leaving all of a sudden with only a one-line note? With a pokémon that, technically speaking, is still wild? To go someplace you've never been, to meet someone you've never met, to get something _no one_ has ever seen? And to have to cross the wilderness to do it? _The day before Professor Oak arrives?_ You are a _moron_, Crystal."

The girl bit her lip, sinking into her chair. That stung. She'd been expecting Professor Elm to be maybe a little worried, but a lot excited. She looked up at him. "I'm fired, aren't I?" She asked.

Elm paused, then just shook his head, letting out a helpless laugh. "No, Crystal. You're not fired. In your head, I'm sure you thought you were doing the right thing, and if what I think is in that bag really _is_ in that bag, then I hardly want to start off the greatest scientific find in history by _firing_ its co-discoverer. Just…" He looked at Crystal. "I don't know. Don't do anything like this again."

Crystal let out a long sigh, rubbing her face. Kitsu hopped up onto her lap, exhausted after days of being carried on Crystal's shoulder. Somehow. "I won't," she said.

Elm nodded, rubbing his hands together. "Right," He said, then turned to the duffle bag, standing up. "Now that _that's_ out of the way…"

Crystal perked up a little, and smiled, lifting up Kitsu and setting her down on Elm's table as they both stood. Kitsu _huffed_ slightly at having been moved, but when she saw Crystal unzip the bag, she got excited.

It might have been the sacred relic of some ancient religion, for all the way Elm stared at the small thing, wrapped in mismatched blankets - and in a way, it was, at least to a pokémon scientist like Professor Elm. Kitsu climbed in, sniffing at the egg and rubbing against it, and Elm took that as a sign that it was safe to touch. Kitsu watch his hand closely as he pressed first a finger, then his palm to its surface.

"It's warm," he breathed, as Kitsu curled up in the blankets and lay down, tail wrapped around the egg.

"The other egg hatched prematurely, and the pokémon inside was malformed," Crystal said, rubbing her face. "You know that, I guess."

"I don't suppose you have that other egg…?" Elm asked, not taking his eyes from the egg as Kitsu _eev-eev'd_, then closed her eyes and began drifting to sleep.

Crystal shook her head, and told Professor Elm, as briefly as possible, what happened at Mr. Pokémon's house. Elm's eyes widened at the mention of Professor Oak, larger when Crystal told him that he already knew about the egg when he arrived - but not that there were _two_ eggs.

Elm smiled. "I didn't know if that would work," he said, "but I guess between the two or three Dark-types I had in my private lab and the fact that I kept thinking about one egg, when I _told_ him there was only one, his psychics were fooled. I'm glad you caught on."

"I think Yellow…Mr. Pokémon…kind of threw him off." Crystal said. "I don't think that would have worked otherwise."

"But it _did_." Elm said. He leaned back. "Alright. Go home so your mother can stop worrying. And take tomorrow off to get some rest. Wednesday, though, be ready to be back on the job."

* * *

Crystal drew in a long breath, standing at her front door. She was certain she'd never been so nervous about entering her own house before. Not even just after the Rattata infestation, when she was convinced one of the purple-furred rodents would leap out at her as soon as her mother opened the door. At length, she unlocked the door and turned the knob, flipping on the light as soon as she entered.

She didn't quite know what she had expected, but the quietness of the living room unnerved her as she shucked her shoes and walked in, rubbing the back of her neck. Her mother wasn't in sight - most likely upstairs in her room, asleep, at this time of night. Kitsu made her way over to Crystal's couch, hopping up onto it and lying down, seemingly intent on _definitely_ going to sleep this time, no more interruptions

Crystal let out a sigh, slinging her backpack from her back and placing it on the table, then stretching and making her way over to the couch. Her stairs creaked, and she didn't want to wake her mother, so instead the girl just joined Kitsu on the couch. The pokémon eyed her as she was forced to make room, but settled down quickly, cooing softly as Crystal lay down, closing her eyes.

And seeing Tyrogue, his shoulder dislocated, his leg wounded…

Crystal jumped slightly, opening her eyes. She looked down at Kitsu, who had been startled from finally achieving sleep. "Gyaaah," Crystal moaned, borrowing a phrase from Yellow.

So we're going after Tyrogue, then? Kitsu seemed to ask with a _huff_.

Crystal stared, and sighed, reaching down and petting Kitsu. "It's basically impossible to tell pokémon apart." Crystal said softly. "And the guards in different cities can't arrest that kid if he doesn't commit a crime there…"

So we're going after Tyrogue, Kitsu decided with an ear twitch. She curled up into a ball, and Crystal could almost hear her continue: Well, I beat him up before, I guess I can take him again.

Crystal stared at the Eevee, then lay back down and shook her head. "I can't just leave him…no matter what Mom thinks, no matter how bad she wants me to stay. Even if I have to quit Elm Labs…"

I know, Kitsu sighed.

Crystal made a face, and rubbed her forehead. "Okay, you're being a _little_ too talkative. I need to sleep now before they put me away."

Where? There's no asylums nearby.

"I don't know, maybe they'll ship me to Goldenrod…" Crystal began, then glared at Kitsu. The pokémon opened one eye and looked back, making an inquiring squeak.

"Shut up." Crystal said, rubbing Kitsu atop her head.

6


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Notes**  
Of the chapters I've written so far, this one is second only to Chapter Three as my favorite. Warning, though, the first half is kind of entirely descrption.  
Oh, for those who may be concerned: by the time it becomes relavent, yes, the Elite Four will consist of the four that are found in the game itself. But for now, they've got a...different...lineup.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Ten: The Elite Four**

The room was quiet.

Not _silent._ There was a difference between _quiet_ and _silent_. _Quiet_ was soft, easy breathing. _Silent_ was a held breath. _Quiet_ was wind rustling through leaves, was Pidgeys chirping somewhere. _Silent_ was a perfectly still wind and the Pidgeys too afraid to make noise.

In this particular case, _quiet_ was the sounds of an Umbreon, a Sneasel, and a Murkrow, the sounds that they made as they ate or slept or cleaned their fur or feathers, and the tinny sound of a radio playing soft, comforting music. _Quiet_ was the veil that they, by their very existences, projected throughout this room and indeed for several rooms in any direction that blocked psychic abilities, that made the room a soft, _quiet_ haven for the occupant that sit in the comfortable chair in its center, watching a fireplace and listening to the radio and the pokémon and her own breathing - _and nothing else._

_Silent_ would have had to mean that these pokémon were all dead - along with everyone and everything else in the room, in the city, in the greater portion of the Kanto region.

Sabrina had never, in her entire life, experienced _silence_. She severely hoped she never did.

She was too strong, sometimes. Even for the dark-types. She looked to her Murkrow, sitting on his perch next to her, and saw his mind. She saw emotions more than thoughts, and the thoughts she did see were surface thoughts only, whatever he was immediately thinking. Sabrina felt like nothing more than the weakest telepath, looking at the Murkrow, unable to plumb the depths of his mind, to feel and influence and worm her way through it. In this room, her ability to perceive thoughts went only slightly beyond what someone with a good ability to read body language could achieve. In here, she was not like a normal person - but she was close, closer than she had ever been before.

She smiled widely, leaning back in her chair and watching the fire. Some people went on vacations to beaches, or to hotels, or to forests. Sabrina went to this little room, tucked away beneath the Saffron City Gym, filled with pokémon imported from the distant Johto at _great_ expense, and basked in the _quietness_ of it.

Sabrina heard footsteps outside her door, and that only made her smile widen. She hadn't _sensed_ the approach of whoever was coming, only _heard_ it, with normal, mundane hearing. She wondered who could be on the other side of the door. She didn't know, could only guess, and felt a rush of exhilaration at not knowing. Now she knew why games of chance were so popular.

The door opened, and Sabrina found herself staring at man in a white coat, with black hair and a pair of spectacles. One of Oak's Aides. They were all clones, all shaped and grown and trained to be his hands, and they were all of them psychics. Oak had spent decades perfecting them all, harvesting and singling out the right gene sequences to reliably clone strong psychics.

All of them together perhaps equaled to one-tenth of the psychic power Sabrina held as an accident of birth, a quirk of genetics that was not planned for and not realized until she'd already proclaimed herself to be, and proven that she was, the most powerful psychic in the world.

That was a title she had claimed when she was four. Now she was twenty-one.

Sabrina's smile lingered, staring at the Aide with her fingers crossed. As with the Murkrow, she could sense his emotions - unease, at the presence of three Dark-types, worry, at something Sabrina couldn't yet sense, and a need for expedience. She pushed a little harder, and grasped three words from the top of the Aide's mind.

_Elite Four. Meeting._

Sabrina's smile grew. "Is there a problem?" She asked.

* * *

Sabrina was grateful that the veil projected by Dark-types was something that gradually gave way, rather than suddenly - if it was as fast as flipping an on/off switch, Sabrina was certain she'd have gone deaf - in a psychic sense - from the sudden _noise_. Instead, she began to pick up more _noise_ as she walked further and further from her room. First was, of course, the Aide's mind, apparent to her as soon as they reached the end of the hallway and the elevator there. The Elite Four were meeting in a video conference. As the Third Elite, Sabrina needed to be there.

Sabrina idly thought about setting up a video conference room in her sanctuary, but changed her mind almost immediately. Much as it might be fun to talk to others without the benefit of her psychic power on occasion, she simply was _not_ going to speak to anyone of importance while cut off from their minds.

By the time the elevator began climbing, the rest of the noise began, a dull, background roar that was always there. If she wanted to, she could dip into that roar and sample the thoughts. Many of them were the base thoughts of pokémon, looking for food or shelter, to attack or defend, to sleep or wake. Some were more hurried and active - those were the humans. Sabrina could detect, in one form or another, the thoughts of just about everyone in the Kanto region.

But not as much as before. Closing her eyes, she sensed, here and there, blank spots, small veils that, due to distance, she couldn't piece, a novel experience she wouldn't have had some five or six years ago. As Dark-types became more and more common in Kanto - as trainers brought them over from Johto, and due to some natural pokémon migration that was beginning - those veils were growing.

Not soon - certainly not within the next fifty years - but eventually, Kanto might be covered in the same veil that masked Johto and who knew how much of the rest of the world, that prevented the sort of long-range telepathy that Oak relied upon to maintain his Empire. Many in Kanto, Oak included, thought of Dark-types as a new and exotic breed of pokémon that was from the Johto region, but were unique to that part of the world. Sabrina was beginning to suspect that Dark-types were actually fairly common throughout the world, and it was Kanto that was aberrant for having no native population until recent migrations.

Far from dreading that day, Sabrina looked forward to it. The _noise_ would finally be gone. She would still be the most powerful psychic for anyone in the immediate area, still have all of her powers as long as she could see who she wanted to interact with, but she would no longer be able to stretch her mind and her will across hundreds of miles to pierce the mind of anyone she chose - and would no longer have the _noise_ of millions of Kanto reach across those hundreds of miles to pierce her own mind.

Finally, the world would be _quiet_.

The thought made her grin as she and the Aide walked side-by-side as though equals to the conference room in the Saffron City Gym. The room consisted of a desk, a chair, a large TV monitor, and nothing else. The Third Elite sat back in her chair, flicked a switch built into the desk, and waited for the return signals of the other Elite, as the Aide closed the door after she entered and waited outside.

She didn't have long to wait. One by one, the monitor began to split between three people: Agatha, Koga, and Bruno, in that order and in identical plain rooms, with Agatha already waiting for Sabrina.

The Elite Four had gone through many changes over the past few years. Lorelei had left, Koga had been promoted. Lance had left and returned several times, with Sabrina stepping in to fill the void each time, if not his precise place in the order. This was Lance's longest hiatus yet - nearly a full year - and Sabrina was beginning to become comfortable in her status of Third Elite, subordinate only to Agatha.

Even that was tenuous, though. The Final Elite's Ghost-types were strong to Sabrina's Psychic-types, and so technically Agatha was the stronger. But most of her pokémon also had the Poison-type, and for whatever reason, the deadly poison reacted poorly to psychic energies. It meant that any battle between Agatha and Sabrina came down to a simple matter: whoever moved first, won. When Sabrina had undertaken the challenge to find where she would sit in the Elite Four, the wily old crone's pokémon had reacted with speed and efficiency.

Sabrina respected Agatha's experience.

The Second Elite, Koga, appeared next. Koga, sadly, favored the Poison-type. He'd never stood a true chance against Sabrina's own team, though he had put up a good show anyway, and the Forretress he'd recently acquired from Johto had thrown her for a loop and nearly cost her. The master of Poison, who's father had been a master of Poison, who's grandfather had been a master of Poison, had in his team a Bug/Steel that didn't know a single Poison-type move.

Sabrina respected Koga's cunning.

The last of the Elite to show up, Bruno the First Elite, was similarly simply outclassed from the start. Bruno favored Fighting-types. He hit hard…if his pokémon got a chance to hit, which they did not when faced against Psychic-types. Bruno was a simple and straightforward warrior who fought in a simple and straightforward way. He respected power, though. When Sabrina had defeated him, he simply nodded, acknowledged her ability, and moved on. He made no attempt to claim that she had somehow cheated, or that her usage of Psychic-types showed off that she was physically weak in order to try and make her make a mistake. Besides, his two Onix had faired very well against her.

Sabrina respected Bruno's humility.

And all of _them_ respected Sabrina's power. Humility, Cunning, Power, Experience: the unofficial mantra of the Elite Four. The order of importance sometimes changed, but these four tenets of the Elite Four were the things that separated an average trainer from a true Pokémon Master.

"Are we all here?" The Final Elite asked. Her voice sounded tinny, and not simply because of the TV. The soul box that preserved her spirit was getting older, even if she wasn't. Agatha wasn't simply a master of Ghost-type pokémon; in a way, she _was_ a ghost, a spirit that lingered in the true world thanks only to ingenious technology and no small amount of willpower. It also meant she had no physical mind, and so it was impossible for Sabrina to read her thoughts even if she had shoved her own head straight into the spirit's incorporeal body. That was the _other_ reason why Sabrina respected Agatha.

There were words of consent from each of the other three. "I thought," Sabrina said after they were done, "that our next meeting was several weeks from now. Has something come up?"

A rhetorical question, but _someone_ needed to kick-start the conversation.

"Indeed." Agatha said. "_Several_ matters, in fact, some of which I thought had been laid to rest. I _dislike_ burying things twice."

"Unfortunately," Koga said grimly, "The Rockets are like the Rattata they so favor. Even if you kill an entire nest, there are always more lurking somewhere else."

Sabrina sat up a little straighter at that. "The Rockets?" She asked. "Impossible. I would have sensed it if they tried to regroup. Scattered, it's basically impossible to pick them out, but gathered together…"

"In _Kanto_." Agatha said with a nod. "Unfortunately, not so if they were concealed by the veil of darkness that surrounds _Johto_."

"Lance found evidence of them in Johto," Koga continued. "On our way back from the region, our absent leader met with Professor Oak and I."

Bruno crossed his arms, looking down in thought. Lorelei had often mocked him for his supposed lack of intelligence. Sabrina had peered into his mind, however. Bruno wasn't unintelligent, simply focused and straightforward. She did not have contempt for him the way the former First Elite had.

"Do we know for certain it is the Rockets?" Bruno asked in consideration. "I have walked through this Johto region. Many of its inhabitants _sound_ like Rockets. They are soft."

"And so there has been ample opportunity to recruit." Koga said simply. "I have sent runners containing all the evidence and information we have on the Johto Rockets. It should be reaching each of you within the week. The evidence Lance presented is quite conclusive."

"We are not…_popular_, on the other side of the mountains." Agatha said. "Red arrived first and had some time to plant seeds of discontent. Our subtle campaign may have driven Red out and allowed us to add Johto to the Empire, but we only _occupy_ it. We do not _control_ it."

Bruno was shaking his head. "I still disagree with the Professor's methods," he said. He never voiced such disagreements when the Professor could hear, of course, but everyone knew about them, and when he was absent Bruno was rarely silent. "We do not even occupy Johto. We consider it ours because we now control its central government. But they are not like we are. Their cities are more like ours were many years ago: independent. Divided. We _influence_ Johto only."

"So what do you suggest?" Agatha asked. "We abandon the northern campaign and just shove thousands of troops into a pacified land that doesn't even _notice_ we now hold is reins?" She let out a haughty laugh. "Oh, yes. _That_ will convince its populace not to flock to the Rockets."

Sabrina drummed her fingers on the table before her. "Perhaps we need not be _quite_ so heavy-handed," She said. "But we have been remarkably subtle. The Rockets may declare themselves openly, gambling that the recruits they get will be enough to begin open warfare against us by revealing some of our darker secrets to the Johto."

There was a pause. "The truth is a scourge," Koga said at length, "but we have always acted as we must to save Kanto from the pokémon."

"That is debatable," Sabrina said, "but I won't debate it now. I propose we simply begin to act a little more openly. Lance is searching for Red. Rather than hiding his identity, let him put his cape back on and _flaunt_ that he is Elite Four, that he is looking for a criminal and that _this_ is the kind of power we have to toss at things we consider problematic. We'll impress them without directly _frightening_ them."

Both Bruno and Agatha nodded. "Sufficient, for now," Bruno said. "Perhaps we should also approve the sending of more trainers over to Johto. After all, Lance is only one man. He can only be in one place at one time. Additional trainers will show off our strength and character to more of the Johto."

Sabrina nodded. "Good idea."

"I also approve," Agatha said.

Koga frowned. "I do not," he said. "My grandfather once said that the middle road is the most dangerous by far. The Johto must hate us or love us, or else they will do nothing but hold is in contempt."

"Your concern is noted," Agatha said, "but the vote is three to one. I'll be certain your dissenting opinion is passed on to the Professor.

"Moving on, then. Lance has sent his latest report on his hunt for Red. It is not any more promising than the last one."

"Or the one before that," Sabrina guessed.

Bruno slammed his hands onto his table, causing his image to burst into static for a second. "Red is _mocking_ us!" He cried. "He has defeated Lance before-"

"He _destroyed_ Lance before." Agatha corrected, though there was little pride in her voice.

"-and he could do so again!" Bruno continued. "He could send us Lance's head on a pike as a warning to us, but instead he _hides_ for _seven years!_"

"This is troubling," Agatha agreed. "I believe it is time we considered recommending to Professor Oak that he start creating clones again, or else that he promotes Blue to the status of Champion. I am beginning to doubt we will ever find Red."

"For all we know, he lies facedown, rotting in a ditch on the side of the road." Sabrina said. "His _pokémon_ are powerful. _He_ is just a man."

"Wouldn't you have sensed that?" Bruno asked. "I thought you created a strong psychic bond to their lives after Grey disappeared. You sensed the death of Green."

Sabrina nodded. "And I can still sense Violet, Orange, and Blue. But Yellow and Red both slipped off my radar."

Koga shifted almost imperceptibly - but perception of intents and emotions was Sabrina's specialty. The Third Elite eyed him. "Koga, do you have something to add?"

The ninja gathered his thoughts, then said, "No."

Sabrina's eyes narrowed, and she looked to Agatha, a question in her eyes. Agatha nodded slightly, and Sabrina simply grasped all the surface thoughts of Koga at once. No deep penetration, nothing to offend the ninja's sense of self profoundly, but…

The ninja was quick of mind, worming away from her. Sabrina saw images of her own horrible death - drowning in the sludge of a Muk, impaled on the end of a Beedril stinger, burned alive by a Houndour. But none of them were quite _real _enough to distract her. They were conjured images, not memories, and were too quickly formed in his mind. Still, even without warning, he resisted her for some time - maybe as long as five or six seconds.

Quite impressive. She doubted anyone else could have resisted as long.

_Yellow, Johto, Sabrina, Egg, traitor, psychic, Pikachu, Oak, Crystal Tsubaki, Silver, Gold, Red, Elite Four, Agatha, dark, Rockets, car, house, Kanto, Umbreon, top secret…_

Grasping all the surface thoughts of an individual at once resulted in a jumbled, unintelligible mess, but Sabrina had literally been doing things of this nature for her entire life. Hell, she hadn't even been taught how to speak, simply absorbed language from those around her and was forming whole sentences when she was less than a year old. She closed her eyes and re-assembled the thoughts into a cohesive pattern. It took only a moment.

"Yellow is in Johto with his Pikachu, under the assumed name of Mr. Pokémon. Professor Oak encountered him by accident after…" she paused a moment, "an event which is top secret and Koga may not reveal, along with a Johto girl named Crystal Tsubaki, who has an Umbreon." She opened her eyes.

Agatha kept her face carefully neutral, while Bruno's brow was creased with concern. If Koga could have killed Sabrina with a glance, he would have. Sabrina now knew everything Koga did about the event in question, including the things that, technically, she wasn't supposed to know.

_An egg? Hmm…_

"I revealed nothing top-secret." Sabrina said, soothing the ninja's wounded pride. "Professor Oak certainly knew you might be scanned by me, hence why he so carefully worded what you could and couldn't say. _You_ were just being too cautious by revealing nothing at all."

"I do not approve of your methods, Agatha," Koga growled at the Final Elite as though Sabrina were simply a weapon wielded by Agatha. Not an imperfect metaphor, Sabrina supposed, at least in this instance.

"Fortunately, I do not require your approval." Agatha said, perhaps a little too smugly for someone who's continued existence depended upon a frail and aging spirit box that would be no trouble at all for a ninja - or a kid with a BB-gun - to destroy. She looked to Sabrina. "Yellow is in Johto?"

"Yes." Sabrina answered. "Professor Oak feels that he's no longer useful. He considers him as failed as Violet - more so, actually - and doesn't care what happens to him."

Agatha smirked. "Doesn't care? So he wouldn't care if, say, Yellow were abducted and brought back to Kanto for questioning?"

Sabrina thought a moment. "No. He feels nothing but apathy for Yellow. We could kill him if we wanted."

"Good. I will deploy a retrieval team at once. Perhaps Red has made contact with his wayward brother, if for no other reason than for then companionship."

"Perhaps," Bruno said, "but what if he hasn't?"

"Koga disagrees with the Professor's assessment and decision about Yellow." Sabrina supplied. "If Yellow yields no useful information, then we can simply hand him over to the Second Elite."

Though his face didn't reveal it, Koga's mind revealed that he pleased at that possible outcome. Sabrina knew he would be - that's why she had suggested it.

"Agreed." Bruno said.

"Agreed," Koga said, grudgingly.

"Then the vote is unanimous," Agatha declared. "That concludes everything I wished to discuss. This meeting is adjourned."

Sabrina nodded, turning off her TV with a flick of her wrist, not bothering to actually interact with the switch. She considered the extra information she had retrieved from Koga's mind.

_An egg…but the pokémon died, Crystal said, and the grave confirmed it._ She worked her way through the memories. Koga had never entered the house-car of Yellow, but he had seen Yellow and the teal-haired girl named Crystal through its windows. Perception was Sabrina's specialty, and she saw things in Crystal's eyes and reactions that Koga hadn't. _Crystal hid something. Impressive…and she reacted poorly to Professor Oak…_

Sabrina mulled over the information. Of the Elite Four, only she had not yet been to the Johto region. Even Agatha had risked a journey, in order to meet with someone in Ecruteak City, the capital of the Johto League.

Perhaps it was time to change that.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Notes**  
I actually don't like this chapter very much, but it's sort of a necessary one from a storytelling perspective. I wish I could have just glanced it over, but certain events needed to happen, so I got them out of the way here.  
Oh, by the way, I've decided my official theme song for this story is "Fighting" by Yellowcard: .com/watch?v=2sHKK1_WhV8. It doesn't really fit right now, but then we haven't even gotten to the vast majority of the Plot.  
Keep reading!

* * *

**Chapter Eleven: ****Decisions**

Crystal woke up with a blanket draped over her, and one of her arms over Kitsu's still-sleeping form. Her nose registered sensation next - _someone_ was cooking up a storm, and after a week of trekking across the wilderness, it smelled delicious.

But then, Mom's cooking always did.

Crystal's eyes fluttered open, and she looked around. Home. She was in her home, with all the windows open and the sun lighting the place up. She'd almost been expecting not to recognize the place at first, like in books and radio programs when the hero's spent so long away from home that they were confused when they finally when they finally wake up after their first night back.

But that didn't happen. She was _home_, and she could never, ever forget it.

Her mother was in the kitchenette, moving back and forth across the area with dishes, pots, and pans. It looked like she was cooking enough to feed a large part of the Victory Army. She didn't notice that Crystal was awake yet.

_Hi Mom?_ Crystal asked herself. _Good morning? Nice to see you again? What do I say?_

The girl settled for just getting off of the couch, shifting gently to avoid waking Kitsu and leaving the blanket over the Eevee. She made her way over to the kitchenette, rubbing her eyes.

"'Morning," she said simply, going with whatever came out of her mouth first.

Her mother jumped a little, turning quickly and nearly dropping the large basting spoon she had in her hand. "You're awake!" Mrs. Tsubaki exclaimed, dashing around the counter and throwing her arms around Crystal. The girl hugged tightly back, and something in her went _snap_. It finally occurred to her, fully, that she'd left with no warning to go into the dangerous wilderness and risked life and limb, that she potentially could have ended up never coming home.

Crystal felt tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said softly, holding her mother tighter. "I'm sorry. I'm _so_ sorry, Mom, but I had to go, had to…"

"Shh," her mother said, not releasing her. "You're home. That's what matters. Your home and you're safe." She pulled back, not letting go of Crystal, looking into her eyes. Crystal noticed that her mother's eyes were red, and she wiped her own tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.

"H…how have you been?" Crystal asked, but regretted it almost immediately.

Her mother's face fell. "How do you _think?_" She demanded, stepping back and going back into the kitchenette. Crystal all but smacked her own face.

"I'm sorry," Crystal said, moving into the kitchenette and looking around. "I'm sorry, Mom. I…I don't know what it was like, but I _had_ to go. If Professor Oak-"

"Never mind," her mother said in a determined way, and looked Crystal up and down. "Go and clean yourself up, then come back downstairs. Breakfast will be ready soon."

The young girl paused a moment, then let out a long sigh and headed up to her room to grab fresh clothes.

* * *

The quietness at the table was deafening.

Crystal carefully picked through her breakfast, eating everything her mother had made for her - her plate had a veritable mountain of food on it, as though she thought Crystal had been starving for the week she had been gone. She had to switch between numerous utensils depending upon what she was eating. Oddly enough, Kitsu, too, was given mountains of food, and the Eevee ate hungrily.

"S…so," Crystal said, breaking the quiet before it drove her mad. "How was the store?"

"Fine," her mother responded, not looking at her.

Crystal bit her lip, eating a few more bites. "Uh," she said, "Cherrygrove has hot springs. Me and Kitsu, after getting there, we went to one at the Pokémon Center. It was nice."

Her mother just nodded this time, not even bothering to voice her opinion on the matter.

Crystal thought. "Oh," she said, remembering something, "did I get any mail?"

Her mother glared down the table at her. Crystal flinched. "Yes," she responded after a minute. "From…from Goldenrod City."

Crystal bit her lip again. That was her mother's way of telling her that, yes, the pokémon trainer gear that Professor Oak had said was coming had arrived. "Mom," Crystal said, taking in a deep breath. "I'm…I'm going to be heading out again."

Her mother put down the fork she'd been holding roughly, looking down. "So let me guess," Mrs. Tsubaki began. "This is the part where I tell you _no_, and you go on about how you're an adult and it's your choice."

Crystal paused. "Well…"

"And then I tell you how dangerous it is, but that's okay, you'll say, because you have your own pokémon to protect you."

This was a little unnerving. Crystal looked away. "Well, Kitsu did help me-"

"And then," her mother said, "I tell you how worried I was when you were gone for a _week_. That I was in tears constantly. That I kept having nightmares about all the things that could have happened to you…all the things that you seem to want to _chase down_."

Crystal looked to her mother. There were tears in her eyes, and a begging, _pleading_ look on her face. Crystal never wanted to see her mother look like that, and a _huge_ part of her wanted to jump up, run down the table, and grasp her mother firmly and assure her that she would never go anywhere.

But then Crystal remembered Tyrogue. The girl stood up, taking in a deep breath as she did.

"Mom," she said, determination in her voice. "I'm heading out again. I'm going to get Tyrogue back from the kid that stole him. I know what he looks like and I think I know what he's going to be doing. As soon as I have him back, I'll come home."

Her mother looked back down at her plate, biting her lip - a mannerism not unlike Crystal's. She looked like she was about to say something, but then something small and brown-furred started rubbing against her leg.

Crystal jumped, wondering if Kitsu was about to get kicked away in frightened panic. Her mother looked at the Eevee, who cooed contentedly in thanks for the food that her mother had given her. Crystal's mother scooted her chair back somewhat, reaching down and picking up Kitsu, setting the pokémon on her lap. Kitsu looked at Mrs. Tsubaki, her tail swishing back and forth.

Crystal wondered if a Ditto had somehow learned how to copy humans and replaced her mother.

"You protect her," her mother said sternly to the Eevee, then leaned forward and actually _hugged_ Kitsu. "Keep my daughter safe."

Kitsu responded by licking her mother's ear. The woman jumped slightly, moving away from Kitsu, who _eev-eev'd_ before hopping off of her lap and moving over to Crystal.

"Finish your breakfast," Mrs. Tsubaki said to Crystal. "Then I'll…I'll make you something for the road."

* * *

Crystal watched her mother keeping busy in the kitchenette, chewing on her lip. She couldn't even imagine what her mother had to be going through right now, and she once again had to remind herself that this was a _good_ thing that she was doing, that her mother worrying about her was the price that she had to pay to get Tyrogue back.

So instead of focusing on her mother, the girl turned to the small box that currently sat on the living room floor, emblazoned with the symbol of the League of Johto. She used her house keys to tear open the tape.

Pieces of straw had been used to protect the three items contained within. One was a black, leather-bound identification passbook. The first page contained information on Crystal - her name, age, date of birth, and settlement of origin. It also contained the date the ID book had been issued on, and the date it would expire, ten years from now, at which point she'd need a new one. Lastly, it had her title - Advanced Pokémon Trainer - and her trainer ID number - 61232.

The second page contained a statement - _The Secretary of State of the League of Johto hereby requests all whom it may concern to permit the citizen of the League of Johto named herein to pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection._ The statement was written three times, once in the normal alphabet of Johto, a second time in a more archaic, circular version of the Johto script used for formal documents like this, and a third time in the angular and functional Kanto script. Though Kanto and Johto shared the same basic language, several centuries of isolation from each other had made their alphabets take different routes. Crystal could still read Kanto, but it was like reading something written by someone with bad handwriting.

The next few pages contained a few ground rules for traveling between cities, mostly to the effect of reminding the bearer that though Johto had a central law and government, individual cities still may have local laws or customs that the traveler should try not to violate or offend. The final pages where mostly blank, and meant for stamps authorizing pass into a given city or leave a city. For the most part, this ID book was identical to the one she'd gotten when she'd turned eleven, the only difference being that it was new and blank, while her old handler one was older and _mostly_ blank.

Crystal set the book aside, and pulled out the next item within the box. It was small, made of some kind of lightweight red metal, with a series of small buttons on it and a hinge that opened up to reveal a screen.

Crystal opened the device, and flipped the _on_ switch on the side. After several moments of loading, it brought her to its main screen, which requested her trainer ID number for verification. After using the buttons to key in the number, the device identified itself as a pokédex.

"Huh," Crystal said, looking at Kitsu, who was looking into the box and seemed to be considering climbing in, and pointing it at her. There was a moment's pause, then the pokédex brought up an entry.

"Eevee," the girl read. "Average height: eight inches; average length: four feet with tail. Normal-type that is characterized by brown fur with white markings at tip of the tail and a white mane of fur. A rare pokémon, but sighted throughout the known world with no one area more or less likely to have them. Most notable quality is the existence of five potential known evolutions: Flareon, Jolteon, Vaporeon, Espeon, and Umbreon. Eevees are curious and energetic while awake, but sleep up to thirteen hours a day to help maintain their fast metabolisms."

Crystal glanced over the rest of the entry, dominated by information on typical personalities and socialization habits, most of which seemed to apply to Kitsu fairly well. Kitsu, meanwhile, had climbed into the box, and was even now apparently making a bed for herself within it from the straw, using her teeth to remove the last offending, not-comfortable thing from within it.

Crystal closed the pokédex and looked over the last item. Like the pokédex, it was hand-held, with a digital screen that displayed the time, and a sliding cover beneath that which revealed a keypad with ten numbers, zero through nine, as well as two additional keys, marked _call_ and _end_. Above the screen was a small speaker of some kind, and the bottom was a receiver…

Crystal stared at it a moment, then her eyes widened when realization struck her. She pressed a series of numbers into the keypad, hit the _call_ button, and tentatively raised the device to her ear.

"Elm Labs," she heard a voice over the device say. It was distorted, slightly, and unclear, sounding more like a recording than a live person talking. "Professor Elm speaking."

Crystal paused. "I have a telephone." She said simply.

"Excuse me?" Elm asked, annoyance in this voice. "Who is this?"

"It's Crystal," the girl responded, as she looked over to the kitchenette. Her mother was staring at her, a question in her eyes - _why are you speaking to empty air? _"I got a package from the Johto League. I have a telephone now."

There was a moment's silence. "A _hand-held telephone?_" Elm asked, as her mother did at the same time. Neither seemed to believe her.

Crystal nodded, then realized that the Professor couldn't see her. "Yeah. I have a hand-held telephone." She stood, walking over to her mother, moving the device so that her mother could hear through the speaker as well. As she did, she was able to see the back of the device, and the writing on it.

"It's called a Pokégear Mk-II," Crystal said into the speaker. "Made by SILPH Co."

"SILPH?" Mrs. Tsubaki asked, looking at the phone. "Isn't that some big corporation from Kanto?"

"You have a _Kanto-_imported hand-held telephone," Elm said, his voice monotone as he took in this information.

"We don't even have a home phone!" Mrs. Tsubaki exclaimed. "No one in New Bark Town does! Other than you, Professor, I mean."

"Crystal, why did the Kanto send you a telephone?" Elm asked.

Crystal bit her lip, looking at the receiver. "I'll be stopping by later today," She said. "I'll explain things then."

The professor was silent for a moment, and Crystal idly wondered if he had somehow read her mind or had some other sense of what was coming. "Alright," he said at length. "I'll see you later, then." There was a _click_, which Crystal supposed meant that he had hung up.

Her mother was smiling a little, and looking at the telephone. "You can call me," she said. "Or call Elm Labs. I'm sure the professor won't mind if you called to talk to me…"

Crystal smiled as well, looking at the phone herself. "I don't exactly have anyone else to call," Crystal said. "I'll work something out with Professor Elm when I go to see him. I'll call as often as I can."

Her mother nodded, then looked back at everything she had made. "I put together some sandwiches," She said resolutely. "Bellsprout-leaf and other things that will keep." She indicated several packages, bound in paper. "And there's a bag of rice, and some berries…"

Crystal nodded as her mother went over everything. She looked like she was packing more for a trip to Kanto than to the next city over - Crystal was certain that she wouldn't need to pack so heavily, having already made the trip once. Once her backpack was full of food, plus a spare set of clothing, the awning, flint and steel for lighting a fire, her bedroll, and a sheet to lay over herself, it had to weigh close to forty pounds.

"Urk," she said as she lifted the backpack onto her shoulders. She idly wondered whether or not Kitsu would really expect to be carried. Probably yes.

Her mother looked at the awning that Crystal had used. "Are you sure this is going to be enough?" She asked. "I mean, all it'll take is for the wind to blow the wrong way if it's raining…"

Crystal shrugged as best she could with the weight of the backpack. "We don't have a tent," she noted. "I'll buy one when I get to Cherrygrove. They can't be _that_ expensive."

Mrs. Tsubaki nodded, adjusting one of the straps on Crystal's backpack for her. She wouldn't meet her daughter's eyes.

"Mom," Crystal intoned, grasping her mother's hand with both of her own. "I'm going to come back. I promise."

Her mother nodded, then leaned in and grasped her daughter in a tight hug. Crystal felt wetness in her hair. "Make sure you do." Her mother begged softly. "Be safe."

Then she let go - more than just freeing Crystal from her embrace, she let go of Crystal, released her and accepted that Crystal was old enough now to start making her own decisions, to act like and to _be_ an adult. And to make her own mistakes.

"I'll call tomorrow," Crystal vowed. "And when I get to Cherrygrove City…and whenever I can after that. I promise."

Her mother nodded again. "Okay." She said, and looked away again. "Good luck."

Crystal nodded, putting on a determined, sure face as she turned around and walked out her front door, Kitsu falling in step beside her. But she didn't make it far before she had to wipe tears from her eyes.

* * *

"You're quitting," Professor Elm said, his voice deadpan.

Crystal bit her lip, but nodded, looking right into Elm's eyes as she sat opposite him. "I know what the person who took Tyrogue looks like," she said. "He said he wants to be the best trainer in the world, so he'll almost certainly be taking the Gym Challenge. So I know where he'll be. But inter-city law means that he can't really be arrested for taking Tyrogue. There's no way to prove that they're the same pokémon."

Elm tapped his fingers on his desk. "But you're going to steal Tyrogue back?" He asked. "Crystal…he has one heck of a head-start on you."

Crystal nodded. "I know."

"And you're just going to leave me high and dry in the meantime." Elm said.

That Crystal was one-upping Gold and Silver's sudden departure by not even giving a week's warning wasn't lost on her. She nodded. "I know where I'm going, I know what I'm after, and I know who has it. I'm already better off than I was last week."

Elm grunted. "Of course, I'm sure it hasn't been lost on you that if he wants to become a great trainer, he'll be _training_. Which means that Kitsu could find herself _very_ outclassed, _very_ quickly."

Crystal paused. In fact, that hadn't occurred to her. "I…I guess I'll just have to make sure to train Kitsu, too."

The Professor looked at her, crossing his arms. "_And_, he'll probably be building a team of pokémon. Trying to 'catch 'em all,' as the Kanto say, or at least get a balanced team together so he doesn't have to worry about the weakness of having just a Fighting-type."

Crystal nodded. She had been expecting _that_, at least. "I'll catch a team of my own." She said resolutely. "I'm _going_ to get Tyrogue back, Professor."

Elm stared at her, then to the backpack she had set down next to her before sitting down in his office, and lastly to Kitsu, who sat on Crystal's lap, somehow mimicking the determined look of her human companion. Elm let out a long sigh. "You told your mother this time, at least?" He asked. "I mean, actually _spoke_ to her?"

Crystal nodded. "Yeah. I was actually going to see if I could call here every now and then, to talk to her. And you," she added quickly. "To make sure you know I'm okay."

The Professor let out another drawn-out sigh. "Well, I can hardly keep you from leaving if you want," he admitted. "The lab's going to be a smaller place, though."

Crystal nodded, and stood up after helping Kitsu down from her lap. "I'm sorry, Professor." She said.

Elm shook his head, and sighed. "Alright," he said. "Do what you have to do. But be careful, Crystal. And keep in touch."

Crystal nodded again. "I will." She promised, picking up her backpack and putting it over her shoulders, then beckoning Kitsu to follow her out of the office. "I'll be back as soon as I can."


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Notes**  
Technically this is just filler as well, but at least Crystal is finally past Cherrygrove City...twelve chapters later...  
Also, behold my attempts at comedy.

* * *

**Chapter**** Twelve: Delicious Treats**

"Okay," Crystal said, holding one hand at her side, the other one in her jacket pocket - the one that she kept Kitsu's treats in. Kitsu stared at her, waiting.

Crystal raised her hand up, finger pointed at the sky, then swung it forward and pointed at the mock pokémon she had made from sticks, leaves, and grass. It looked something like a Bellsprout…or that had been Crystal's intent, anyway. In fact it looked like a top-heavy pile of sticks, leaves, and grass.

"Attack!" Crystal cried as she pointed.

Kitsu stared at her.

The girl bit her lip. "Attack!" She tried again, pointing resolutely at the mock pokémon behind Kitsu.

The Eevee stayed still for a moment, then looked over her shoulder, ears twitching. She may have been considering the mock pokémon, but it was just as likely that she had heard something interesting. Crystal sighed, taking her hand from her pocket, no treat in it. Kitsu _eev-eev'd_.

"Nope." Crystal said sternly. "Not unless you learn how to attack on command."

Kitsu stood back on her hind legs, and _eev-eev'd_ again, tail swishing.

Crystal's eye twitched. "_No_." She said, though she had almost given it at the cuteness of the display.

The Eevee glared at her, and _eev-eev'd_ more intently, less a beg this time and more a _demand_ for treats.

"No."

Kitsu maintained her pose a moment longer, then fell forward onto all four legs again and _huffed_, walking over to Crystal's bedroll and planting herself down onto it, glaring at Crystal.

I want treats. Crystal didn't even have to visualize it, that was definitely what Kitsu was saying. The girl sighed as she sat down on her bedroll, fishing out her pokédex and looking it over. It had more than just information on the various known species of pokémon in it; it also had trainer tips, advice on how to teach one's pokémon to fight at one's direction rather than just doing whatever seemed to work.

"Use a mock pokémon," Crystal read aloud, "in order to practice. Direct the pokémon firmly with the action you wish it to take. Reward the pokémon with treats for following your commands. Withhold the treats if it disobeys. If that doesn't work…_stop feeding it?_"

Crystal looked at her pokédex in disbelief, and then back to Kitsu, who was eyeing her treat-pocket hungrily. She turned back to the pokédex, looking the cover over. Sure enough, it was made by SILPH - in Kanto. _Damn_ the Kanto were harsh with their pokémon.

"I am _not_ going to stop feeding you!" Crystal said. The girl sighed, standing up again. Kitsu stood as well, as Crystal began pacing.

It had been four days since she'd set out. Crystal had passed through Cherrygrove a third time, picking up a small, one-person tent on the way, though that consumed virtually all of her remaining pallets. She'd called her mother and Professor Elm, though she didn't have much to say, nor did they have much to say back. Still, it was good to hear their voices.

She was now further north than she had been when she had left Cherrygrove to go to Mr. Pokémon's house. She had actually walked by the strange house-car on her way north, and found it abandoned - as expected, honestly, though she found herself surprised that she was hoping to somehow see him anyway.

Most of this day had just been spent walking, but she had decided to set up camp early, while there was still sunlight, and try and start training Kitsu. So far, it wasn't working at _all_.

"Okay," Crystal said aloud, stopping pacing and crossing her arms. "I'm a _handler_. I'm supposed to be _good_ at this…"

Kitsu put forth that perhaps if Crystal gave her a treat, she might come up with an idea, communicating this by going over to Crystal and standing up on her hind legs, trying to get at the treats in Crystal's pocket.

"Wrong," Crystal said, taking a step back. Kitsu fell forward again, and _huffed_, sitting down and thinking deep thoughts about how to get the delicious treats.

"Okay," Crystal repeated, sitting down cross-legged, arms still crossed, and staring at the Eevee. She thought back to all the times she'd had to handle pokémon before. The trick was to find out what the pokémon wanted, firstly.

Treats, Kitsu suggested helpfully as she eyed the pocket with the reward food in it.

"Shut up, I'm getting inside your head," Crystal said. Unfortunately, that was as far as Crystal got. All Kitsu wanted was the treat. She would probably of happily attacked the mock pokémon for a treat, but the problem was Crystal had no real way to communicate that intent to her.

Crystal let out a long sigh, looking at her mock pokémon. Maybe using a fake just wasn't as good. The pokédex did warn that some pokémon simply couldn't be trained without a real, actual sparring partner.

Kitsu _eev-eev'd_ again, this time with a pitiable tone to her voice, as though she were starving and Crystal was denying her food entirely. The girl let out another long sigh, then reached into her pocket and produced the treat bag, tossing a couple at Kitsu. The Eevee caught one in the air, and had devoured them both in seconds.

"Maybe we'll go hunting tomorrow," Crystal said, walking back to her bedroll and sitting down, looking through her pokédex again.

Kitsu had come over to Crystal, and rubbed against the girl as though to forgive her for withholding treats.

* * *

"_Stop_," Crystal said firmly, pointing at Kitsu. The Eevee did, surprisingly enough, though she kept herself facing forward, glaring at the Sentret and sniffing the air. The Sentret glared back, hissing slightly.

"Okay…" Crystal said, keeping an eye on the wild pokémon herself. The last thing she wanted was for it to just charge at her. She tossed a treat down at Kitsu's feet, a reward for obeying her command. The Eevee stared at the treat, as though wondering why food was being thrown at her, but she gobbled it up quickly lest the Sentret get its paws on it.

The Sentret stared at Crystal and Kitsu, clearly having no clue what was going on. It sat back on its tail, paws spread wide, and made a _huff-huff-huff_ sound that sounded a lot like a warning.

"Now," Crystal began, and gathered herself to put some force behind her command, "Kitsu, _attack!_"

Kitsu's ears twitched at the force and emotion behind the command, interpreting the intent quickly. The Eevee let out a series of quick _yips_, looking over her shoulder at Crystal.

This doesn't seem like a good idea, Kitsu seemed to be trying to say.

Crystal shook her head. "Kitsu." She said firmly, and held up at treat, then pointed at the Sentret. "_Attack!_"

Kitsu lingered a moment, then shot off, closing the short distance between herself and the Sentret quickly. The small long-tailed pokémon tried to swipe back at Kitsu, but the Eevee was faster, ducking under the blow, spinning quickly to knock the Sentret off of its tail, and then using her hind legs to kick the Sentret away and into the tall grass.

Crystal began to congratulate the Eevee and give her the treat, when a series of _huff-huff-huffs_ emerged from the tall grass. About a dozen Sentrets began standing up on their tails, none of them looking happy.

Warned you, Kitsu implied by turning around and running past Crystal, back to the road. The girl followed as the Sentret gave chase.

* * *

"How the heck was I supposed to know that there was a colony of Sentret?" Crystal demanded as they stared down at the pokémon from their perch. Crystal had grabbed Kitsu as she ran and brought her up the nearest tree. Sentret weren't good at climbing, fortunately, so they were relatively safe.

Kitsu switched between glaring hatred down at the Sentret and glaring hatred over at Crystal. "Okay, okay, I know that Sentret are social. I thought we got lucky and found a solitary one," the girl admitted.

Kitsu _huffed_.

"Shut up."

The girl looked around. In the next tree over, a pair of Pidgeys were glaring at her, for having surrounded the tree near their nest with loud, angry pokémon.

"You shut up too. They can't stay here forever. Sooner or later they're going to have to eat or sleep or go to the bathroom or something."

That's what you think, the Sentret said to her. Or that's what she saw, anyway, when several of them ran off and started gathering berries to eat, stuffing them into their cheek-pouches. Over the course of the next fifteen minutes, about four Sentret had gathered food for the rest of the colony, and they began to eat - in place. They were _laying siege_ to Crystal.

"Gyaaah." Crystal moaned, shifting a little in the tree so she could sit in its branches.

This is all your fault.

"Oh _shut up_." Crystal insisted, pointing at Kitsu. "It was a simple mistake."

Kitsu glared more.

Crystal glared back, and held forward a treat. The pokémon brightened instantly, eating it quickly and walking carefully over to Crystal, forgiving her with a lick.

"Ha," Crystal said. "Know how to make _you_ happy, at least." She grabbed her pokédex and opened it, looking through the entries for Sentret and seeing if there was anything helpful.

"Sentret are extremely protective of their territory and do not allow anything that seems to be a threat to exist in it," she read. "If you anger them, keep running. Do not…oh for God's sake."

Crystal groaned, leaning back in the tree, against a branch that was behind her, and kept reading. "Do not climb a tree or otherwise limit your mobility. Sentret can't climb well but will trap you wherever you are and will remain until they no longer consider you a threat. It is far more sensible to simply keep running until you have left the colony's territory, after which time they will most likely leave you alone."

Crystal groaned again. "Far more _sensible_." Crystal noted. "As though we're supposed to just _know_ this. It's _common knowledge._"

The girl looked down to the Sentret. Most of them seemed to have calmed down, but two of them were up on their tails, glaring up at her, while other three were keeping watch for other dangers. The remainder were sniffing the air, looking around for food, or playing with each other.

"So what constitutes me not being a threat anymore?" Crystal asked as she looked over the pokédex. It had no suggestions, and neither did the Pidgeys in the next tree. Kitsu was digging at Crystal's pocket - not the one with the treats, though she seemed to be checking just in case.

An idea struck Crystal. She sighed, grasping Kitsu. "You're going to hate me." She admitted after a moment, taking her bag of treats from the other pocket. She pulled out several and lay them on her lap to occupy the Eevee, then tossed a couple more down at the Sentret.

The pokémon stared at the treats for a moment, before one of the Sentret came forward and sniffed at them, then began sampling them. After a few moments, the rest of the colony fell on them, almost battling to get the few that were there. The treats were gone in seconds.

Kitsu stared at the Sentret, then back at Crystal, eyes wide, tail tucked down, and ears pressed back against her skull - a look of shock, terror, and betrayal.

"It's this or we starve to death in a tree," Crystal said, pouring all the remaining treats into her hand, then throwing them as far as they'd go, over as wide an area as possible. The Sentret scattered after them immediately, and Crystal grabbed Kitsu and started climbing down.

By the time she was on the ground, several of the Sentret were staring at her, but were more interesting in combing the ground for treats. One stood onto its tail and started _huff-huff-huffing_, trying to rally the colony, but to no avail.

The girl turned and fled. No Sentret gave chase - but if pokémon could have cried, then Kitsu would have been bawling.

* * *

Kitsu wasn't talking to Crystal. Or, rather, she refused to ride on Crystal's shoulder, and hadn't squeaked, _eev-eev'd_, or done so much as _look_ at her human partner, though she kept pace as Crystal walked along the road, heading for Violet City.

Given that the alternative had been trying to fight off more than a dozen Sentret, or else starving in a tree, Crystal didn't feel _too_ bad, though she knew that Kitsu didn't have a concept of being under siege.

At length, Crystal stopped, at the base of another ridge, and began trying to set up camp. Kitsu didn't help gather tinder or sticks for the fire, either.

The girl sighed as she rifled through her backpack, pulling out a can of food for Kitsu and a bag of rice to start her own meal. There were also some dry meal cookies, but other than that she was beginning to run low on food for herself and Kitsu. From the looks of things, she was going to have a hungry last day on the week-and-a-half-long trip to Violet City - assuming her little detour today hadn't cost her too much time, which she doubted.

Crystal paused as she stared at the meal cookies. They pretty much lacked any nutritional value at all, though they were filling, good as a snack. She'd gone through about a quarter of the package - they were tasty.

"Hmm." The girl said, pulling out a cookie, breaking it in half, and tossing half over to Kitsu.

The pokémon watched the half-cookie sail through the air and land near her. After a moment, she stood, walking over to it and sniffing, then taking a few tentative bites. After a moment, Kitsu started munching away happily, tail swishing, and when she was done she came over to Crystal and started rubbing against her leg, cooing.

"Ha," Crystal proclaimed.


End file.
